Eyak language

Eyak is an extinct Na-Dené language that was historically spoken in southcentral Alaska, near the mouth of the Copper River.

Marie Smith Jones (May 14, 1918 – January 21, 2008^[1][2][3]) of Cordova was the language's last native speaker, as well as the last full-blooded Eyak. Because of the dying-off of its native speakers, Eyak became a symbol in the fight against language extinction^[4].

The spread of English and suppression of aboriginal languages are not the only reason for the decline of the Eyak language. The northward migration of the Tlingit people around Yakutat in precontact times encouraged the use of Tlingit rather than Eyak along much of the Pacific Coast of Alaska. Eyak was also under pressure from its neighbors to the west, the Alutiiq people of Prince William Sound, as well as some pressure from the people of the Copper River valley. Eyak and Tlingit culture began to merge along the Gulf Coast, and a number of Eyak speaking groups were absorbed by the Gulf Coast Tlingit populations. This resulted in the replacement of Eyak by Tlingit among most of the mixed groups after a few generations, as reported in Tlingit oral histories of the area.

The closest relatives of Eyak are the Athabaskan languages. The Eyak-Athabaskan cluster, together with Tlingit, forms the basic division of the Na-Dené language phylum.

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.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Postalveolar / palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
			Central	Lateral		Plain	Labial
Stops	Unaspirated		d [t]			g [k]	gw [kʷ]	g̣ [q]
	Aspirated		t [tʰ]			k [kʰ]		q [qʰ]
	Ejective		t' [tʼ]			k' [kʼ]		q' [qʼ]	' [ʔ]
Affricate	Unaspirated		dz [ts]	dl [tɬ]	j [tʃ]
	Aspirated		ts [tsʰ]	tl [tɬʰ]	ch [tʃʰ]
	Ejective		ts' [tsʼ]	tl' [tɬʼ]	ch' [tʃʼ]
Fricative			s [s]	ł [ɬ]	sh [ʃ]	x [x]	xw [xʷ]	x̣ [χ]	h [h]
Nasal		(m [m])	n [n]
Approximant				l [l]	y [j]		w [w]

Note: The /w/ is not very labial, and the /m/ is not a normal speech sound in Eyak.

Vowels

	Tense/Long			Lax/Short
	front	central	back	front	central	back
close	i. [iː]		u. [uː]	i [ɪ]		u [ʊ]
mid	e. [eː]			e [ɛ]/æ [ɛ]	a [ə]
open	a. [aː]			a [a]

Vowels followed by an "n" are nasalized.

External links

• Native Village of Eyak (official homepage of the Tribe)
• Alaska Native Language Center
• Wrangell's 1839 Comparative Word-List of Alaskan languages (includes Eyak)
• BBC News article about death of last native speaker, with her picture. (Article date January 24, 2008).
• Eyak Preservation Council
• From Stewards to Shareholders: Eyaks Face Extinction (interview).
• The Eyak Corporation (ANSCA Corporation)

Bibliography

References

v • d • e  Languages of Alaska English · Tagalog · Ninilchik · Aleut · Alutiiq · Central Yup'ik · Siberian Yupik · Iñupiaq · Tlingit · Eyak · Ahtna · Dena’ina · Deg Xinag · Holikachuk · Upper Kuskokwim · Koyukon · Tanana · Tanacross · Upper Tanana · Tsetsaut · Hän · Gwich'in · Haida · Tsimshian