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Eyak
Pronunciation
[ʔiːjaːq]
Native to
United States
Region
Cordova, Alaska
Ethnicity
Eyak
Extinct
January 21, 2008, with the death of Marie Smith Jones
Revival
Unknown, estimated around late 2019[citation needed]
Language family
Dené–Yeniseian?
Na-Dené
Athabaskan–Eyak
Eyak
Writing system
Latin
Official status
Official language in
Alaska[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3
eya
Linguist List
eya.html
Glottolog
eyak1241
ELP
Eyak
Pre-contact distribution of Eyak
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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]
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.
^Chappell, Bill (21 April 2014). "Alaska OKs Bill Making Native Languages Official". NPR.
^Michael E. Krauss 2006.A history of Eyak language documentation and study: Fredericæ de Laguna in Memoriam Archived 2013-08-31 at the Wayback Machine. Arctic Anthropology 43 (2): 172-217
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...
The Eyak (Eyak: ʔi·ya·ɢdəlahɢəyu·, literally "inhabitants of Eyak Village at Mile 6") are Native American Indigenous peoples historically located on the...
surviving speaker of the Eyaklanguage of Southcentral Alaska. She was born in Cordova, Alaska, was an honorary chief of the Eyak Nation and the last remaining...
her farewell, they also bid farewell to the Eyaklanguage as Marie was the last fluent speaker of the language." Overall, there are many different reasons...
Proto-Athabaskan language. This resembles both Tlingit and Eyak much more than most of the daughter languages in the Athabaskan family. Although Ethnologue still...
reduced gradually from south to north. The shared features between the Eyaklanguage, found around the Copper River delta, and Tongass Tlingit, near the...
voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be...
OCLC 7080610 – via ProQuest. Krauss, Michael E. (27 June 2016) [1965]. "Eyak: a preliminary report". Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 10 (2–3). Oxford...
uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive [k], except that the...
extinct Eyaklanguage and active participation in the campaign to revive Eyak. Leduey is a polyglot, and he is able to speak five languages besides Eyak: French...
Tanana, Upper Tanana, Tanacross, Hän, Ahtna, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian as official state languages. However, this does not require the government...
Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken by indigenous peoples in the northern part of North America,...
The United States does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English (specifically, American English)...
Austerlitz conducted approximately one month of field work with the Eyaklanguage, resulting in a collection of at least eight recordings and approximately...
Consciously devised language Endangered language – Language that is at risk of going extinct Ethnologue#Language families Extinct language – Language that no longer...
the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances...
American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone...
International Retrieved on 2007-04-11. Alaska Native Heritage Center. (2000). "Eyak, Haida, Tlingit & Tsimshian." Archived 2007-05-28 at the Wayback Machine...
Marie Smith Jones 1918 2008 Anchorage, Cordova last speaker of the Eyaklanguage DeeDee Jonrowe 1953 living Anchorage, Fairbanks, Willow sled dog racer...
[nɑ̀ːpèːhópìz̥ɑ̀ːt]) is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North...
[dʒalaˈɡî ɡawónihisˈdî]) is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. Ethnologue states that there were 1...
in Anchorage, Alaska. Marie Smith Jones, last Native speaker of the Eyaklanguage, is buried there. List of cemeteries in Alaska "Evergreen Memorial Cemetery"...
called Gullah-English, Sea Island Creole English, and Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" within the community)...
Global Information
Alaska[1]