Twenty different Alaskan Native languages were spoken in Alaska when it became a state in 1959. One language, Eyak, is now extinct, with the last speaker dying 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’s purchase by the United States in 1867. The last speaker likely died in the 1930s or 1940’s.
Some authors also considered the Salcha-Goodpaster dialect of Lower Tanana to be a distinct language, known as Middle Tanana, but the last speaker died in 1993.
Eskimo-Aleut and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit both belong to the Na-Dene language family.
The Tsimshian language arrived in Alaska only recently in 1887, moving under the leadership of Anglican missionary William Duncan.
The Tsimshian language spoken in Alaska is one four Tsimsihanic languages, the other three are 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.
Inuit-Yupik-Unangan (Eskimo-Aleut)
Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (Na-Dene)
The Inupiat languages are also known as Inupiatun, Inupiaq, Iñupiaq, Inyupiaq, Inyupiat, Inyupeat, Inyupik, Inupik, Inupiaq, or Alaskan Inuit. They are a group of dialects of the Inuit languages, spoken by the Inupiat people in northern and northwestern Alaska.
Eskimo–Aleut or Eskaleut is a language family native to Alaska, the Canadian Arctic (Nunavut and Inuvialuit Settlement Region), Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Greenland, and the Chukchi Peninsula on the eastern tip of Siberia. It is also known as Eskaleutian, Eskaleutic, or Inuit–Yupik-Unangan.
The Unangan (Aleut) Language is the heritage language of the Aleut (Unangax̂) people living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, and Commander Islands.
The Deg Hit’an (also known as Deg Hitan, Degexit’an, and Kaiyuhkhotana) are a group of Northern Athabascan peoples in Alaska. Their native language is called Deg Xinag.
The 31 Northern Athabaskan languages are spoken throughout the interior of Alaska. The differences among Athabaskan languages may be compared to differences among Indo-European languages. Thus, Koyukon and Dena’ina are about as different as French and Spanish, while Koyukon and…
No one remembers the Iñupiaq word for the bumble bee flower. People call it that in English because bumble bees like to feed on it’s flower. In modern times,the Iñupiaq have adopted
