Blog 7: Eyak Language

Link: Last Fluent Speaker Dies 

The link above gives an audio video of how a women dedicated most of her life trying to preserve the language of her people along with other dying languages. In the video it also gives us a example of how her language was spoken, which is something you should definitely check out!

When Marie Smith Jones died, she took an important treasure: the language of the Eyak Indians. Jones, who died six years ago, was the chief of this tribe of the southern Pacific coast of Alaska and the last person who spoke their language with fluently.

This is a truly sad news to hear. While listening to the audio video I thought to myself, "Why are there not more people learning about dying  languages? How can we preserve them?" Which Jones demonstrates some ways of how to preserve the languages, so we won't lose them completely: creating a dictionary or make recordings.

Each of these languages expresses a worldview and what it means to be human, and as the language dies, these visions are lost as well.