Eskimo kissing Eskimo kissing An Eskimo kiss, also called nose kiss or nose rub, is the act of pressing the tip of one's nose against another's nose usually interpreted as a friendly greeting gesture in various cultures. When early explorers of the Arctic first witnessed Inuit nose rubbing as a greeting behavior, they dubbed it "Eskimo kissing". The Eskimo kiss was used as an intimate greeting by the Inuit who, when they meet outside, often have little except their nose and eyes exposed. The Eskimo kiss is employed by the Inuit as a traditional greeting called a "kunik". A "kunik" is a
Sirenik Eskimo language kinds of them. They can be used not only in attributive role (as in the above examples), but also in predicative role: Adjectival participle - / - conveys a meaning related rather to modality (than to the relation of dependent action and main action). It conveys meaning “able to”. Sireniki is (just like many Eskimo languages) an ergative–absolutive language. For English-language materials treating this feature of Sireniki, see Vakhtin's book, or see online a paper treating a relative Eskimo language. Although the below examples are taken from Inuit Eskimo languages (Kalaallisut), but e.g. Sireniki's distinguishing between two kinds of 3rd