Eskimo Trade Jargon was an

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

used by the Mackenzie River Inuit as a trade language with the Athabaskan peoples to their south, such as the Gwich'in (Loucheux). It was reported by Stefánsson (1909), and was apparently distinct from the Athabaskan-based

Loucheux Jargon Slavey Jargon (also ''Broken Slavey'', ''Broken Slavé, Broken Slave, Broken Slavee,'' and ''le Jargon esclave'') was a trade language used by Indigenous peoples and newcomers in the Yukon area (for example, in around Liard River and in the Macke ...

of the same general area. A reduced form of the pidgin was used for ships' trade at

Herschel Island Herschel Island (french: Île d'Herschel; Inuit languages: ''Qikiqtaruk'') is an island in the Beaufort Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean), which lies off the coast of Yukon in Canada, of which it is administratively a part. It is Yukon's only o ...

off the Arctic coast near Alaska.

References

North America Native-based pidgins and creoles Inuit culture {{pidgincreole-lang-stub