"Place of Many Excrement-Covered Bottoms."
Press release's typo makes PMO the butt of jokes
Anna Mehler Paperny
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009 02:53AM EDT
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Languages are tricky creatures.
Jumping from one to another is fraught with potential for embarrassing linguistic slipups.
Just ask the Prime Minister's Office.
The PMO found itself in an awkward position yesterday when it realized it had sent out a press release Monday that inadvertently said the Prime Minister would make several public appearances in a "Place of Many Excrement-Covered Bottoms."
The release meant to say Iqaluit - the 7,000-person capital of the territory of Nunavut, where yesterday the Prime Minister did indeed make multiple media appearances.
But instead it said Iqualuit, which adds a u after the q and means something entirely different.
The root word "iquq," explained Sandra Inutiq, a policy analyst with Nunavut's language commissioner, refers to "fecal matter remaining on the outer layer of the anus post-defecation."
The suffix "aluit" makes it a plural or suggests "the speaker is surprised or disturbed," implying a surprising or disturbing number of people with unclean behinds.
In an e-mail yesterday, PMO press secretary Dimitri Soudas apologized for the typo and noted that it is a common mistake.
"Hopefully this unfortunate typo, which we have corrected, will inform the greater public that there is no (extra) 'u' in Iqaluit. ... From the Prime Minister's office to national media organisations [sic] such as you, sometimes the unfortunate error of adding a 'U' after the 'Q' has been made," he wrote.
Ms. Inutiq said the situation is more funny than insulting - but it also raises the question of just how serious the federal government is about the North.
"On one hand you think, 'Okay, people make mistakes, right?' ... On the other, you'd think the Prime Minister's Office, who represents the whole country, would just be a bit more diligent in terms of not making those mistakes.
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