In a previous blog post, we briefly explored the extinct Eyak language which was spoken within the vicinity of Prince William Sound, Alaska, and died with its last speaker on the 31st of January 2008.
There, we touched upon the difference between we and LA, namely that while both of them translate as to swim, the former refers specifically to humans and other animals, while the latter refers to fish and birds.
In this post, we will discuss a number of other features present in the language which you may find interesting.
(Note: Eyak possesses a case-sensitive alphabet, e.g. a lower-case /x/ makes a different sound to an upper-case /X/.
Also, there are discrepancies in spelling between sources, most significantly between the online dictionary and the Krauss dictionary, both of which are in the source list below.)
Section 1: Playing Cards
In this section, I decided to talk about terminology related to playing cards. The inspiration for this came from a cursory glance through the Eyak dictionary, when I noticed something interesting.
First, however, let us introduce the Suits.
Le’t‘: Diamonds, though the word also means box, coffin or square.
kAleest‘: Clubs, though the word also means cross or crucifix.
k’u’uGL: Hearts
Xish: Spades
Now, let us say that you get the trump card in any of these suits. If this occurs, here is the phrase for you:
(Xish) Xaan‘ gAdlaasa’yahL: I got a trump (in spades)
In Eyak, there are several different counting systems. Below, we will include only the system for Abstract Counting. (The words for 1, 2 and 5 take the suffix -ih, when referring to
1: LinhG-ih, though the word can also be translated as a certain, first, and occasionally other.
However, I was unable to find a word which specifically translates to ace.
2: la’d-ih
3: t’uhLga‘
4: qAlahqa’ga‘
5: ch’aan‘-ih
6: ts’iin
7: la’dits’iin, is a compound built from la’dih, meaning two, and ts’iin, meaning six. Why it is that this combination equals seven as oppose to eight is no doubt a question with an interesting answer.
8: q’Adits’iin, is another compound built using the aforementioned ts’iin, though the Prefix q’Adi is difficult to either identify or analyse.
9: guts’dee
10: dAGaaq‘
We also have the Royal Cards:
Lila: Jack, though the word can also mean man, boy or male
tluudz: Queen, though the word is a loan from Chinook Jargon which entered the Eyak language through Tlingit, and can also mean woman
tluudzqa‘: King, though the word literally mean’s Queen’s husband.
Here, we reach the reason as to why I wished to talk about playing cards. In Eyak, we see that the word for king does not refer to the male form of a queen, instead it refers to her husband.
This is the exact opposite to the English word queen, which comes from the Old Anglo-Saxon word quan, which means wife, and later came to have the more specific meaning that it has today.
(The suits in a game of cards.)
Section 2:
Here we will discuss the words for human genitalia, and how they change based on the
Like any true gentleman, it’s ladies first:
kus’Akih refers to a girl’s vagina.
This includes the Diminutive Suffix -kih, which turns the noun into something small, little or cute, depending on context. In the dictionary it is referred to as a nursery term, implying that it is used with very young girls. It is roughly equivalent to the German -chen or the Spanish -ito/-ita.
The word is built from the root-word kus, which means urine, though and also to wash something (in urine). It is originally a loan from the Tlingit kwas, and variants of the word appear in a wide number of languages present on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Xaaya’d refers to a woman’s vagina.
This word is derived from Xl-ya‘, which means in the female pubic area, and the nominaliser -d. However, this etymology is somewhat uncertain.
Last, but not least, we have the men:
‚Anuh is the word for a boy’s, or prepubescent, penis. This can also take the Diminutive Suffix -kih, creating ‚Anukkih.
This word could possibly be segmented into ‚A-nuh, though this is uncertain.
guch‘ is the word for a man’s penis.
Unlike the previous examples, this seems to be a fully self-contained word.
(The estimated distribution of the Eyak Language before contact with various European powers. Before this time however, the Eyak language had been under duress by the northward migration of the Tlingit and Yakutat peoples, which encouraged the use of the Tlingit language on the Pacific Coast.)
Section 3:
In this section, we discuss kinship in the Eyak language, and how a number of words for family members are more specific than their English counterparts.
(The author would like to state that the order in which any of the terms are discussed do not reflect the esteem in which he holds his family member).
To keep this simple we will only discuss biological family members.
First of all, we will discuss the terms for siblings, which vary depending on the relative age of the sibling, and whether the speaker is a man or a woman.
dAGee‘ is the word for younger brother or younger sister. Both men and women are allowed to say this word.
yAdkih is the word for a man’s sister.
On the opposite side, we have ndzkih, which refers to a woman’s brother.
tsa’kih means older sister, referring specifically to a woman’s older sister.
XAwAX means older brother, referring specifically to a man’s older brother.
ch’an’win’inh has two meanings. It can refer to either a woman’s sister-in-law or a man’s brother-in-law. Thus it can be translated to same-sex sibling-in-law.
I am yet sure how someone refers to their opposite-sex sibling-in-law.
(Making its second appearance is an infographic depicting me and my siblings. Here we have the words with which we would refer to each other. For reference, I am the Stefan Karl Stefansson of this particular quartet.)
We will now move up a generation, and discuss my parents generation.
Since Mother’s Day occurs next Sunday (as of when this was written), we will start here.
umaa means mother or his/her/their mother.
aan is another word for mother.
mother-in-law, meanwhile, is Adanh.
taa‘ is the word for father.
yAtaa‘ is the word for father-in-law.
From here we move on to our parents‘ brothers and sisters. Unlike the words for our own siblings, these do not differentiate for either age or the sex of the speaker.
yaaq’e‘ is the word for mother’s sister.
‚ahd is the word for father’s sister.
gaag is the word for mother’s brother.
tinh is the word for father’s brother. 
(Here we have another family tree to help provide context to the above words. Although the order of birth is not explicitly included, it can be inferred by simply reading each side of the tree from left to right.)
From here, we move up another generation, and discuss our grandparents. In total, there are 8 words to describe to our parents‘ parents, 4 referring to their mothers and 4 referring to their fathers.
Additionally, we have 4 words that refer to grandchildren. This gives us a total of 12 words to dissect. Luckily, there is a method to this madness, which we discuss now.
We can divide these 12 words into 4 sub-categories, based on the kinship noun upon which they are based.
Our first root noun is ‚weesh, which refers to one’s maternal grandfather (and his brother).
‚weeshGAshiyah is the regular word for mother’s father, used in a normal third-person sentence
‚weeshGAshah, meanwhile, means Grandpa!. For context, imagine a small child running towards their grandfather as they say this.
‚weeshGAkih refers to a man’s daughter’s child/-ren. It can refer with equal validity to his grandson or granddaughter.
Secondly, we have the root noun ‚uh, which refers to one’s paternal grandfather (and his brother).
‚uhshiyah is the word for father’s father.
‚ushah is the other word for Grandpa!
‚uhkih refers to his grandsons and daughters.
At this point, you have likely noticed a pattern emerging. This holds true for the following words referring to members of one’s maternal line, though for convenient reference I will list them all the same.
Our third root noun is chuu, which refers to our maternal grandmother (and her sister).
chuushiyah is the word for mother’s mother.
chuushah is the word for Grandma!
chuukih, meanwhile, refers to her grandchildren.
Last, but by no means least, we come across k’inh, which refers to our paternal grandmother (and probably her sister also, though the dictionary does not confirm this).
k’inhshiyah is the regular word for father’s mother.
k’inhshah is the other word for Grandma!
k’inhkih refers to her grandchildren.
(Here we have a simple family tree designed to show how all the terms fit together to form a more cohesive whole.)
Section 4:
While the other sections were quite heavy on words, I will instead show a series of pictures of various Alaskan fauna and their Eyak and English translations.
(I am not an expert on the fauna of Alaska, and I take full responsibility for any mistakes that I may have made in identifying any of the below species.)
AdAte’ya‘: Silver Salmon
GAsu‘ / gudAsu‘ / GAts‘: Smoked Salmon (non-specific species)
giyah sdilahL / kaashk‘: Pink Salmon
tiitl‘: Chum / Dog Salmon
There are number of words relating to salmon, though since these do not refer to any particular species, I did not feel behooved to search for any pictures for these.
q’Amaa is a word that can mean either Female Salmon or Salmon Roe. I assume this is the case because the Eyak rarely prepared or ate one without the other.
qAts’LG is the word for Male Salmon.
xaanih, meanwhile, refers to Very old salmon, or salmon that is ready to die, which is seen when it is red and has started to turn yellow in spots.
There are a number of other words referring to distinct varieties of salmon, there is no single generic word which simply means salmon, without reference to either species, sex or whether its cooked or not.
On the one hand, this means that you can express more information through a single word. Though on the other hand, it places a greater emphasis on the learner to not only memorise a larger number of words, but improve one’a ability to distinguish between different forms of salmon.
As we can see, there is equally no generic word for bear.
lixah: Brown Bear
ts’iyuh: Black Bear
However, there are some animals for which a generic equivalent exists. For example:
GAnuh: duck
aaXangihG: Long-Tailed / Oldsquaw Duck
dALAweeg GAnuh: Whistling Duck
By itself, the word dALAweeg refers to the mammal species Marmota Caligata, also known as the Hoary Marmot, Groundhog, or Whistler.
ts’its'(g): Harlequin Duck
diiya’ya’d GAnuh: Canvasback Duck
Alone, the word diiya’ya’d means something along the lines of ocean, or literally in the salt water, which one can assume is a reference to the duck‘ s habitat.
Indeed, in the Krauss dictionary, it is also referred to as the saltwater duck.
As you can see, the names of two species of duck also include the generic word for duck.
(I knew what was on your minds, and you’re welcome. My new title is a word-for-word translation of the original English, with the word yAqah meaning day, though it can also mean dawn or daylight. Whether this is how the native Eyak would have translated the film’s title is another question.)
In conclusion, I hope this was an interesting introduction into an extinct language that has, at the time of writing, been extinct for just over half of the author’s current lifetime.
Once I gain the confidence to go toe-to-toe with the grammar of this language, you can likely expect an article attempting to shed some light on the mechanics thereof.
In our next exploration, we will return to the continent of Australia, where we will meet with our old friend Dyirbal, one of whose features is strikingly similar to Chinese. Until then,
Same Wilf-time!
Same Wilf-channel!
Sources:
Michael E. Krauss, Eyak Dictionary (Alaska: University of Alaska 2012)
Michael E. Krauss, Eyak Grammar (draft) (Alaska: University of Alaska 2015)
https://www.etymonline.com/word/queen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyak_language
http://eyakpeople.com/dictionary
http://www.eyakpreservationcouncil.org/culture/
http://akwaterfowl.com/gallery/duck-species/dabbling-ducks-2/fulvous-whistling-duck.html
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=harlequinduck.main
https://seaduckjv.org/meet-the-sea-ducks/long-tailed-duck-oldsquaw/
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