Sanaaq is a novel by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, a Canadian Inuk educator and author from the Nunavik region in northern Quebec, Canada.
[2] Many of the chapters, or "episodes", of the novel were originally written at the request of Catholic missionaries stationed in Nunavik who were interested in improving their own knowledge of Inuktitut in order to better communicate with local communities and translate prayer books into the Inuit language.
[4] In 1961, anthropologist Bernard Saladin D'Anglure first met Nappaaluk, and encouraged her to resume work on the novel and finish the final episodes.
The novel's episodes often introduce new vocabulary terms to the reader, first in Inuktitut, and then again repeated with more context or with synonyms that serve to further explain the meaning of the word.
[4] D'Anglure describes Nappaaluk's style as "brisk, fluid, and lively",[10] and attributes this to both the novel being written in syllabics and the Inuit oral tradition which may have introduced a greater element of lyricism to the writing.