Alaska Native languages

At the time of statehood in 1959 there were twenty indigenous languages spoken within the boundaries of the state of Alaska. Within Alaska today these languages are generally referred to as Native languages. Most of these languages belong to one of two large language families: Eskimo-Aleut and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (Na-Dene). The Tsimshian language arrived in Alaska only recently in 1887, moving under the leadership of Anglican missionary William Duncan. Tsimshian spoken in Alaska is one of the four Tsimshianic languages, the other three spoken in Canada. The Haida language, once thought to be related to Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, is a language isolate, not demonstrably related to any other language.

Of these twenty languages, one is now extinct. The last speaker of Eyak died in 2008. Though not included as a modern Alaska Native language, Tsetsaut was still spoken in the region of the Portland Canal in southern Alaska at the time of Alaska purchase in 1867. The last speaker likely died in the 1930s or 1940's. Some authors consider the Salcha-Goodpaster dialect of Lower Tanana to be a distinct language, known as Middle Tanana. The last speaker died in 1993.

For the Alaska Native languages, the years between 1960 and 1970 were, in Michael E. Krauss's words, "a transitional period of rebirth of interest in Alaska Native languages and a shift of developments in their favour".

Alaska Native languages are being recorded and transcribed today in the hopes of having them revitalized through the use of these published dictionaries and grammar books. The languages are being recorded in their native tongue as speakers tell stories that are then written in both English and that language’s alphabet. These alphabets are relatively new to the languages since they did not typically have a written version of the language before the influence of non-Native Alaskans. About 20 native languages are being worked with by the Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC). In current time, the languages are being re-taught to the villages and interested people through university campus classes and classes that are help in the villages around Alaska and Canada. These languages are not limited solely to Alaska since their speakers were established before state and country borders were. One of these Athabaskan languages is documented to be found in Southeast Alaska, along the interior and eastern border of Alaska, into Northern Canada, and then on into Western Greenland.。

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