Is Eyak merely "aesthetic"?

A recent article by linguist and commentator John McWhorter revisits the link between language loss and culture loss, arguing that "The main loss when a language dies is not cultural but aesthetic." Is the loss of Eyak merely aesthetic, a loss of some objectified beauty? Clearly to lose a language is not equivalent to losing a culture. That is a straw man argument. But surely something more than mere aesthetic value is lost when a language is lost.

McWhorter fails to notice that linguists are not the only ones who mourn the passing of small languages. Few speakers actively "choose" to shift to another, dominant language. In Alaska language shift to English is occurring within a background of more than a century of language policy which explicitly sought to exterminate Native languages. Such linguicide is not so uncommon among endangered minority languages. Indeed, it may be the norm. So it is that many speakers and their descendants do mourn the passing of Native languages. To simply say that these speakers are complicit in that loss overlooks the complex factors which are have led to the impending loss of global linguistic diversity.

South Baffin roundtable convenes in Iqaluit, NU.

On October 15 and 16, the Government of Nunavut conducted a South Baffin Island roundtable discussion in Iqaluit, Nunavut to discuss strategies for language revival, promotion, and protection in the territory. More than two dozen elders and a handful of young people from Nunavut’s six South Baffin Island communities, speaking exclusively in Inuktitut, addressed a broad range of topics which included the role of the Inuit language within the media, school system, private and public sectors.

In 2008, Nunavut’s legislature passed the Official Languages Act, Inuit Language Protection Act, and Education Act. These pieces of legislation stress the permanent and primary role of the Inuit language within all sectors of Nunavut life, including a completely bilingual K-12 education system by 2019.

Through simultaneous English translation, I listened as delegates discussed foreseeable challenges to meeting the requirements set forth in the legislation. The idea of choosing a single Inuktitut dialect to speed the production of printed material was highlighted. Nunavut is enormous and great dialectical differences can exist between its 25 communities. Nunavummiut use four different words for ‘thank you,’ for example.

According to the 2006 Canadian census, 64% of Inuit in Nunavut reported being able to speak the Inuit language well enough to carry on a conversation, an 8% decline from the 1996 census which found 72% spoke the language conversationally.

To make matters more complicated, five communities in western Nunavut speak the Inuinnaqtun dialect, which like Inupiatun is severely endangered. In these communities, English not Inuinnaqtun is the first language of young people, whereas in the east, many individuals in their early twenties grew up speaking only Inuktitut. Inuktitut is written in a syllabic alphabet; Inuinnaqtun is not. This has made territory-wide efforts to revive and promote language use uneven and awkward, as language strength and dialect can differ significantly between villages.

The Inuit language is now an official language within Nunavut Territory, along with English and French – Canada’s two official languages. The Inuit Language Protection Act will enforce this fact beginning in 2013, by which time businesses are expected to have Inuit language signs, translated materials, and hired staff who speak the language.

The hope is that these laws will help honor the fact that Inuit are the majority in Nunavut, and that their mother tongue is an inseparable part of who they are. Speaking with Nunavut Language Commissioner Alexina Kublu of Igloolik, it is well understood that when it comes to language issues, many people simply have other priorities.

“The concerns of the average person are so grassroots that it’s sometimes hard for them to think about esoteric situations,” Kublu said. “Where are their children going to get food from? That is a reality, and the use of languages is just a day to day thing that you don’t think about.”
Kublu’s office is responsible for enforcing the language rights included in the Official Language Act and Protection Act for Nunavummiut. It is the body that people can appeal to, whether they speak French, English, or the Inuit language, to report violations of their language rights.

“With the Inuit Language Protection Act, we’re trying to make the language of the work place Inuktitut,” Kublu said.

A lesson can be drawn from these efforts, and it is that diversity within a dying language is not necessarily a good thing, that cooperation is critical. In Alaska, efforts for language revival, when they happen, are also complicated. Nunavummiut are fortunate to have a federally funded government carrying out language programs, rather than separate tribes, regional corporations, and academic institutions that contribute piecemeal to Inupiatun revival.
In northern Alaska, where Inupiatun dialectical differences are tiny and communities are (compared to Canada) close together, disunity does not make sense in a race against time that we do not have to lose but, through inaction, could easily lose. If I learned anything from the South Baffin roundtable, it was that cooperation across dialects and organizations gets work done.

Similar cooperation is urgently needed between the Northwest and North Slope Boroughs to pool resources and ideas, as well as to formulate a working strategy to create living language speakers in communities. Corporate assets supplementing the work of an Inupiatun working group; IRAs, city governments, and school districts – working together – could assist in executing the goals of such a working group. A standard Inupiatun dialect for classroom materials and other publications could save time, money, and reach more people quickly.

These ideas may seem unrealistic, expensive, or naive, but ideas are always the first step. In 1971, Nunavut was an idea – a topic of conversation between seven Inuit leaders sitting in a conference room outside Toronto. It is now a reality.
In regions where Inupiat are the majority, Inupiatun learning should not have to be a hidden, unmotivated, individual effort. It needs to be brought back to the forefront of public life, as it once was for hundreds of generations.

Inupiaraaqta!

The following is a modified article submitted to the Arctic Sounder newspaper.

In 1980, linguist and UAF Alaska Native Language Center founder Michael Krauss published a paper titled "Alaska Native Languages Past, Present, and Future." Krauss describes the origin and captures a profile of each Alaska Native language, but he also speculates about each language's future vitality. His observations for Inupiatun, unfortunately, have as much resonance today as they did twenty-nine years ago: 

The average young person in Barrow probably still learns in school more about Greece than Greenland; he may not even know that Greenland exists. If his knowledge about the Inuit world is broadened, if natural communication and cultural exchange do not remain blocked from him, if he is able to experience the potential cultural strength of an international Inuit world, Alaskan Inuit [language] may find the support it needs to survive, to stop withering in its own isolation before the onslaught of acculturative forces such as the school, radio, television, cinema, and White population pressure (1980: 110). 

Today, many Inupiat still look south to Juneau and Washington, D.C. for curricular guidance rather than to Iqaluit and Nuuk. Alaska Natives often talk about the culturally assimilative climate in Alaska Native community classrooms in the past tense, without really acknowledging that acculturative forces are still at play in the curricula offered our children.  At the time of his writing, the Inuit of Canada's central and eastern Arctic were five years in to negotiations with the Canadian federal government that would result in the largest aboriginal land claim ever, and the creation of a new territory and government: Nunavut ("Our Land"). Carved out of the former Northwest Territories in 1999, Nunavut Territory is ground zero for some of the most exciting advances in the protection, promotion, and strengthening of the Inuit language today. It is a jurisdiction in which Inuit, as the majority, now have the power to guide policy and discourse. Although many challenges exist within the endeavor to create a bilingual education system and culturally responsive territorial curriculum, it is at least an endeavor, which is more than can be said of most cultural regions in Alaska. 

Inupiatun is a dialect within the Inuit language family, which stretches from Little Diomede Island in western Alaska to Ittoqqortoormiit in east Greenland. Geographically, the Inuit language and culture is the largest on earth. Nunavut Territory is nearly 100,000 square miles bigger than Alaska, taking up the central and eastern Arctic. The primary role of the Government of Nunavut, Inuit leaders envisioned, would be to insure the survival of the Inuit language and culture into the twenty-first century.  

 

Through history, Alaska Natives have maintained that we are unique peoples, resisting full assimilation into American society. Because languages shape cultural identities they have always been the centerpiece in that struggle. Languages reflect the cultural values and environment that shape them, and put simply, they breathe life into, and literally give voice to cultures. Unfortunately, northern Alaska remains isolated from some of the most exciting action being taken in other parts of the Arctic to strengthen Native languages. Nunavummiut are re-envisioning their society to include an education system that reflects who they are and where they come from through laws that honor and protect the Inupiaq dialects spoken in their homeland for thousands of years.  

 

In 2008 the Government of Nunavut, representing 30,000 people, 85% of whom are Inuit, passed legislation that aims to insure bi-lingual and culturally relevant education in all territorial schools. Working in the territorial capital of Iqaluit for the Inuit land claims organization, I have the unique opportunity over the next six months to participate in the Canadian Inuit approach to language revival and education. In my opinion, the progressive and inspiring Inuit perspective in Nunavut is important to understand as the Inupiaq language continues to suffer from neglect in Alaska. 

  

The Legislative Assembly in Iqaluit. 

Growing up in Anchorage, it was easy to take the Inupiaq language for granted. Of course, it wasn’t taught in schools, broadcast on the radio or included in TV programming. Many of my friends and I simply didn’t have exposure to Inupiatun. I heard snatches of the language – single words and phrases learned from my mother, who was born in Deering and a fluent speaker as a child. As I grew older, I became more aware that we have a language of our own and realized that we are all stake-holders in its future, no matter where we live. I met Native students in college from around the country and realized that Inupiat are fortunate to still have a land base, language, and cultural identity. I sought out elders and other resources in Anchorage and began learning as much Inupiaq as I could. 

On the other hand, it became clear through visits to the Arctic and speaking with friends and relatives, as well as through work experience, that not nearly enough is being done to preserve, promote, and pass on our most precious cultural asset to the next generation. In 2005, the McDowell Group prepared a report ("Aqqaluk Trust Language Survey") documenting levels of fluency and understanding of the Inupiaq language in the Northwest Arctic. Out of 4,112 respondents in the region, only 575 people indicated Inupiatun fluency, ninety-two percent of whom were over the age of 65. For the Arctic as a whole, linguist Michael Krauss estimated in 2007 that only 2,144 fluent speakers of Inupiaq remain of 15,700 total Inupiat. There are even fewer today, as Krauss used the 2000 Census to make his estimates. 

Inupiaq will slip into extinction as a living language within my lifetime unless time, energy, brainpower and finances are invested in its revival and use - that much is known for sure. The first step is acknowledging that our language is a crucial expression of our cultural identity and a relevant communication tool. Inupiaq is an international language and its dialects are spoken by tens of thousands of people east of Alaska, and through this article I hope to relate what Inuit in Nunavut are doing to keep it that way. When ANCSA was passed in 1971, Inuit leaders were amazed by what many saw as a groundbreaking achievement with critical Inupiat participation. Similarly, the survival of Inupiaq in Alaska may depend on following the example of urgent reform being set by the Inuit of Nunavut. 

James Kari receives Governor's Award for the Humanities

ANLC Professor Emeritus James Kari will receive the Governor's Award for the Humanities this coming October 22, in conjunction with the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. The award is given annually by the Alaska Humanities Forum, and final selections are made by Alaska's Governor.

Kari is well-known both in Alaska and beyond for his contributions to the documentation of Alaska Athabascan languages. He is the editor for the only two extant comprehensive dictionaries of Alaska Athabascan languages (Ahtna and Koyukon). And he has recorded, transcribed, and translated numerous volumes of oral narratives by Alaska's leading Alaska Native writers and orators. His passion for the documentation of indigenous place names has helped to preserve indigenous knowledge of the Alaskan landscape.

Congratulations Professor Kari!

Kari speaking with Dena'ina elder Mary Hobson in 2005

Kari discussing Ahtna geography in 2008

Greenland celebrates Self-Government

Thanks to Anna Berge for passing on this news:

The news is a bit late in getting out to the list, but Greenland officially celebrated Self-Government on June 21, 2009; Greenlandic was declared the only official language. Check out the following websites:

new.arcticportal.org

www.euronews.net

Coining new words

The Alutiiq New Words Council was featured in a radio story today on Alaska News Nightly. As April Counciller describes in the story, the New Words Council brings together Alutiiq elders in monthly meetings to decide on official words for modern concepts such as 'barista' and 'cafeteria'. The New Words Council is a significant effort at "modernizing" an Alaskan language. Too often Native languages are viewed as relics of the past, associated only with traditional culture. Creating new words will help the language to flourish in a world full of cellphones and digital music players.

Curiously, though, the NWC seems to overlook the most common and natural method for coining new words: namely, borrowing. The new word for 'telivision' is ulutegwik, which means literally 'thing for looking'. In this case the new word is built up from existing Alutiiq words or word parts. This approach makes full use of the underlying structure of the Alutiiq language, but because there is no unique way to create words using this structure, it can take some time for speakers to reach agreement. So it is that many new words require discussion over several meetings of the Council.

An alternative method for creating new words relies on taking a word from another language and adapting the pronunciation to fit the new language. This process of borrowing is actually much more common among the world's languages than might be thought. For example, most of the English words for which the NWC is creating new Alutiiq words are actually borrowings in English. Consider:

restaurant < French
cafeteria < Spanish
tram < Ducth / Low German
ski < Norwegian
barista < Italian

The last of these was borrowed into English quite recently.

Ironically, at one time Alutiiq did rely heavily on borrowing. In fact, among Alaskan languages only Unangax̂ has more borrowed words than Alutiiq. Words for 'table', 'stove', 'tea', etc. were borrowed from Russian and adapted to Alutiiq pronunciation rules. Traces of this former openness to borrowing can even be seen in words produced recently by the NWC. For example, the word for 'barista' is kuufialista, literally 'one who makes coffee'. This is built from the root kuufi, itself a borrowing from Russian (which got the word from Arabic through Turkish).

Too often borrowing is viewed as "contaminating" the language. But such a view presumes a static view of language as a museum piece which can only be manipulated internally. Borrowings enrich languages by providing stimulation from outside sources, allowing them to grow and adapt with ease. English and Alutiiq are much richer as a result of their many borrowings.

Regardless, Alutiiq will surely be much richer and vibrant as a result of the efforts of the New Words Council. Their efforts demonstrate that Native languages need not be restricted to traditional domains such as telling folktales. Rather, Native languages can grow and expand in step with our ever-changing world.

ANCSA Corporation Boundaries and Alaska Native Languages

Last week I received a request for a map of ANCSA (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act) regional corporation boundaries. I guess this sort of thing isn't in print anymore, or maybe it is but in any case I don't have a copy. But the GIS data are readily available from the Department of Natural Resources web site, so I was able to easily produce a map. In the process I realized that these data could be easily overlaid with language boundaries using newly digitized data generated with help from folks at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (see the ANL Map Blog). For what it's worth, here's the map. There are some interesting mismatches between language and corporation, particularly in the Southwest, where Dena'ina is split between three corporations: Calista, BBNC, and CIRI. It is interesting that corporation boundaries were being drawn at just about the same time that Michael Krauss was drawing up language boundaries for the first edition of the Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska Map in 1974. It's not clear to me just what role language boundaries may have had in determining or influencing ANCSA boundaries.