Talk:Inuit throat singing

overtone singing?
I believe this is a misconception. Inuit singing games do not involve overtone singing. It would be nice if this was clarified here. I think that the confusion results from calling it 'throat singing'. Indeed, a lot of the sounds are made in the throat (breathing and guttural sounds), so perhaps it makes sense to call it throat singing. However, people then confuse it with Tuvan throat singing, which is overtonal - while Inuit singing is not.

On the possibility of dissemination across Bering Strait
" /.../ If this technique of singing emerged only once and then in the Old World, the move from Siberia to northern Canada must have been over Bering Strait land bridge some 12,000 years ago. /.../ "

Wouldn't it be possible to theorize that throat singing spread to the Americas after the land bridge disappeared? Bering Strait is only 85 kilometers across after all, so I would be surprised if there wasn't some degree of communication between the peoples of Alaska and what is today North East Russia. Jonas Liljeström 11:47, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

It is also possible that it developed independently. Kie (Unregistered User), 2 February 2007.

This makes no sense, since the Inuit are descendants of the Thule who came to the Canadian Arctic around 1000 C.E.Ibis3 (talk) 18:15, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Needs examples!
See comment by someone else below. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 18.202.1.20 (talk) 19:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Just came across this video on YouTube (thanks to BoingBoing). It's what drove me to find this article; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I  79.101.20.1 (talk) 07:02, 4 April 2009 (UTC)Matt

Big thanks...
to the person who mentioned Tanya Tagaq Gillis. Reading this article, I became very curious as to what this music sounds like, and I immediately bought one of her CDs over the Net. Jonas Liljeström 20:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Picture should be of throat singers singing
It looks like this is just a picture of two Inuit women that someone has arbitrarily captioned.Ibis3 (talk) 18:20, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * You are probably right. They're not facing each other. I'm reluctant to remove it, because it's the only image we have right now, but I guess we have to bite the bullet. &mdash; Sebastian 08:32, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Rename to Katajjaq?
I would like to rename this article to "Katajjaq", because the term "throat singing" seems to be misleading; at least the article says nothing about a particular involvement of the throat. Admittedly, the term "katajjaq" occurs only one third as often in Google, but it is common enough to not rule out such a move. &mdash; Sebastian 08:32, 17 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose. English uses the term "throat singing" even though the term is misleading.  I think a redirect suffices. --Stacey Doljack Borsody (talk) 16:47, 17 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose. There are actually 7 different terms used and it should not be up to Wikipedia to promote one dialect over another. Aside from that, unlike other Inuit words (inukshuk/inuksuk for example) there is no large use of any of the 7 in English. Throat singing is the most common term even in the Arctic. Enter CambridgeBayWeather, waits for audience applause, not a sausage 17:39, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

"Also known as" or not?
Inuit throat singing or katajjaq, also known as (and commonly confused with) the generic term overtone singing.

"also known as" and "generic term" mean opposite things in this case. First, it is suggested they are the same, then is said the inuit singing is just one form of overtone singing. Needs reformatting at minimum. 82.141.75.68 (talk) 23:12, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

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