Alaska Native Languages
Eyak
Photo by Molly Lee courtesy Michael Krauss.
Eyak is not an Athabascan language, but a coordinate sub-branch to Athabascan as a whole in the Athabascan-Eyak branch of the Athabascan-Eyak-Tlingit language family. Eyak was spoken in the 19th century from Yakutat along the southcentral Alaska coast to Eyak at the Copper River delta, but by the 20th century only at Eyak. It is now represented by about 50 people but no surviving fluent speakers.only one remaining speaker, born in 1920 and living in Anchorage. Comprehensive documentation of Eyak has been carried out since the 1960s by Michael Krauss, including his edition of traditional stories, historic accounts, and poetic compositions by Anna Nelson Harry.
The name Eyak itself is not an Eyak word but instead derives from the Chugach Eskimo name (Igya'aq) of the Eyak village site near the mouth of Eyak River (Krauss 2006:199). The Chugach word Igya'aq is a general term referring to 'the outlet of a lake into a river.'
With the passing of Marie Smith Jones (pictured above with linguist Michael Krauss) on January 21, 2008 Eyak became the first Alaska Native language to become extinct in recent history.
Documents
A brief introduction to the Eyak language situation can be found in a story by John Bernet published in the magazine Alaska Today in 1983. The title of the piece is taken from a composition of the same name by Anna Nelson Harry, one of the last speakers of Eyak, who passed away on February 1, 1982.
John W. Bernet (1983) Lament for Eyak. Alaska Today, Sept 1983, 26-29. [full text pdf]
A much more thorough history of Eyak language documentation work was compiled by Michael Krauss as part of a special volume of Arctic Anthropology dedicated to Fredericæ de Laguna.
Michael Krauss (2006) A History of Eyak Language Documentation and Study: Fredericæ de Laguna in Memoriam. Arctic Anthropology 43.172-217. [abstract]
A grammatical description of Eyak is contained in the following publication:
Michael Krauss (1970) Eyak: A preliminary report. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 10.167-87. [full text pdf]
A dictionary of Eyak was compiled in by Michael Krauss and is available at the Alaska Native Languge Archive (copyright © 1970 Michael Krauss). Scanned pdf images can be downloaded via the links below. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Links
compiled by gary.holton [at] uaf.edu
Aleut
| Alutiiq
| Iñupiaq
| Central Yup'ik
| Siberian Yup'ik
| Tsimshian
| Haida
Tlingit
| Eyak
| Ahtna
| Dena'ina
| Deg Xinag
| Holikachuk
| Upper Kuskokwim
Koyukon
| Tanana
| Tanacross
| Upper Tanana
| Gwich'in
| Hän
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Alaska Native Language Center University of Alaska Fairbanks Box 757680 Fairbanks, AK 99775 (907) 474-7874 [voice] (907) 474-6586 [fax] fyanlp@uaf.edu |
Comments regarding this website: anlc@www.uaf.edu Last modified February 12, 2008 Copyright ©1999-2008 Alaska Native Language Center |