Katana VentraIP

Eyak language

Eyak was a Na-Dené language, historically spoken by the Eyak people, indigenous to south-central Alaska, near the mouth of the Copper River. The name Eyak comes from a Chugach Sugpiaq name (Igya'aq) for an Eyak village at the mouth of the Eyak River.[2]

Eyak

January 21, 2008, with the death of Marie Smith Jones

Unknown, estimated around late 2019

The closest relatives of Eyak are the Athabaskan languages. The Eyak–Athabaskan group forms a basic division of the Na-Dené language family, the other being Tlingit.


Numerous Tlingit place names along the Gulf Coast are derived from names in Eyak; they have obscure or even nonsensical meanings in Tlingit, but oral tradition has maintained many Eyak etymologies. The existence of Eyak-derived Tlingit names along most of the coast towards southeast Alaska is strong evidence that the prehistoric range of Eyak was once far greater than it was at the time of European contact. This confirms both Tlingit and Eyak oral histories of migration throughout the region.

First person singular: si- (siya:q’e’, "my aunt [mother's sister]")

Second person singular: ’i- (’ita:’, "your (sg.) father")

Third person singular and plural: ’u-

First person plural: qa:-

Second person plural: lAX-

: k’u-

Indefinite

: ’Ad-

Reciprocal

I, introductory sector: consists of two parts, a connective (e.g. 'and so,' 'then,' etc.) and one or more adverbs, especially temporal and spatial adverbs.

S, subject

O, object

The majority of the Eyak corpus is narrative, with very little spontaneous conversation (and that only when embedded in the narratives). There is a better understanding therefore of the syntax of Eyak narrative style and performance than of natural speech. The basic word order of Eyak is subject-object-verb, or SOV, as in "Johnny ’uyAqa’ts’ sALxut’L" "Johnny shot his (own) hand." Relatively few sentences, however, follow this exact pattern; it is far more common to find SV or OV. The full word order of a transitive sentence is I S O [[C P] V]:


The subject and object categories can consist of a noun, a noun phrase, or a demonstrative phrase. All constituents may be filled by zero, excepting the verb.

dAXunhyuu Eyak Language Project

at the Alaska Native Language Archive

Overview of Eyak Language

(official homepage of the Tribe)

Native Village of Eyak

An Eyak speaker

Alaska Native Language Center

Archived 2012-11-19 at the Wayback Machine (includes Eyak)

Wrangell's 1839 Comparative Word-List of Alaskan languages

Eyak basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

about death of last native speaker, with her picture. (Article date January 24, 2008).

BBC News article

Eyak Preservation Council

(interview).

From Stewards to Shareholders: Eyaks Face Extinction

(ANSCA Corporation)

The Eyak Corporation

Extinct Alaska Native language draws French student's interest

Jim Carlton, The Wall Street Journal, 10 August 2010

"In Alaska, a Frenchman Fights to Revive the Eyak's Dead Tongue"