Eyak (language)

Eyak †
Spoken in	USA ( Alaska )
speaker	†
Linguistic ; classification	Na-Dené Eyak-Athapaskan Eyak;

Eyak is an extinct Na-Dene language , those in the south of Alaska near the mouth of the Copper was spoken.

etymology

The name Eyak comes from a Chugach-Sugpiaq term (Igya'aq) for an Eyak village at the mouth of the River Eyak.

Speech death

Marie Smith Jones (May 14, 1918 - January 21, 2008, Anchorage ) of Cordova was the last native speaker and the last full-blooded member of the Eyak people , of which she was also the head. Eyak became a prime example of the fight against the seemingly unstoppable extinction of languages worldwide. The spread of English and the suppression of indigenous languages are not the only reasons for the decline in the Eyak language. The northern migration of the Tlingit to Yakutat in pre-colonial times meant that the Tlingit language was preferred to that of the Eyak along the Pacific coast of Alaska. As a result, Eyak came under pressure from its immediate western neighbors, the Alutiiq from Prince William Sound and the people of the Copper River Valley. The cultures of the Eyak and Tlingit began to mix along the coast and the speakers of the Eyak were absorbed by the coastal Entlingit. This resulted in most of the mixed-group Eyak speakers switching to Tlingit after a few generations, as can be seen from oral Tlingit lore in the area.

Revival of the Eyak

With Marie Smith Jones' death, the Eyak language also died out. Dr. Michael Krauss, a recognized linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks , worked with Jones over several years to create a dictionary and grammar for Eyak.

In June 2010, the Anchorage Daily News published an article about Guillaume Leduey, a French college student with an unexpected connection to Eyak. He had begun teaching himself eyak at age 12 using printed materials and tapes received from the Alaska Native Language Center. During this time he never traveled to Alaska or spoke to Marie Smith Jones, the last native speaker. The same month an article was published about him, he traveled to Alaska and met Dr. Michael Krauss, who helped Leduey with the correct phonological pronunciation of Eyak and arranged further lessons in grammar and morphology, including the morphematic analysis of traditional Eyak stories.

Leduey is now regarded as a fluent speaker of Eyak and is both translator and teacher of Eyak. Despite Leduey's fluency in language, Eyak is classified as "sleeping" as there are no longer any indigenous speakers. On the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), Eyak is rated 9 as "sleeping".

The Eyak Preservation Council received funding from the Alaska Humanities Forum that made it possible to run a website dedicated to preserving the Eyak. In June 2014, the Eyak Language Revitalization Project announced an online program called "dAXunhyuuga '", which means "People's Words".

Kinship

The closest relatives of the Eyak are the Athapaskan languages . Together with the Tlingit , Eyak-Athapaskish forms the Na-Dené languages:

Na-Dené
- Tlingit
- Eyak-Athapaskan
  - Eyak
  - Northern Athapaskan (Alaska and Yukon)
  - Pacific Athapaskan (California and Oregon)
  - Southern Athapaskan (Apache, Navajo in the US Southwest)

Web links

http://www.eyakpeople.com/ The "dAXunhyuuga" language learning program from the Eyak Language Revitalization Project

Footnotes

↑ Michael E. Krauss 2006: A history of Eyak language documentation and study: Fredericæ de Laguna in Memoriam. Arctic Anthropology 43 (2): pp. 172-217
^ "Marie Smith": The Economist. February 7, 2008.
^ John McWhorter, "No Tears For Dead Tongues," Forbes, Feb. 21, 2008
↑ Dog, Andrew. "Eyak". 2004. Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Taylor and Francis Publications. ISBN 1-57958-436-5
↑ Last Native Eyak Speaker Dead at 89 ( Memento from February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ap, January 23, 2008.
↑ Hopkins, Kyle. "Extinct Alaska Native language interests French student". Found July 15, 2011.
↑ Gibbins, Jennifer. "Preserving Alaska Native Culture". Found July 15, 2011.
↑ "Ethnologue"
↑ Hintze, Heather (June 25, 2014). "Program seeks to revitalize extinct Eyak language". KTVA CBS 11. Found June 28, 2014.

[1] Michael E. Krauss 2006: A history of Eyak language documentation and study: Fredericæ de Laguna in Memoriam. Arctic Anthropology 43 (2): pp. 172-217

[2] "Marie Smith": The Economist. February 7, 2008.

[3] John McWhorter, "No Tears For Dead Tongues," Forbes, Feb. 21, 2008

[4] Dog, Andrew. "Eyak". 2004. Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Taylor and Francis Publications. ISBN 1-57958-436-5

[5] Last Native Eyak Speaker Dead at 89 ( Memento from February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ap, January 23, 2008.

[6] Hopkins, Kyle. "Extinct Alaska Native language interests French student". Found July 15, 2011.

[7] Gibbins, Jennifer. "Preserving Alaska Native Culture". Found July 15, 2011.

[8] "Ethnologue"

[9] Hintze, Heather (June 25, 2014). "Program seeks to revitalize extinct Eyak language". KTVA CBS 11. Found June 28, 2014.