Please wait...- Alutiiq Language
- About Alutiiq
About the Alutiiq Language
The decline of the Alutiiq language did not begin, as many would assume, with the arrival of Russian fur traders and explorers. Many Alutiiq men and women learned Russian in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but most Native families continued to use Alutiiq in daily life. The Russian Orthodox Church incorporated Native languages into their mission, rather than enforce a Russian-only policy. Those who were bilingual and also educated in Russian church schools were among the first to help Alutiiq become a written language. This first form of written Alutiiq was in the Cyrillic alphabet. Most of these texts were translations of church texts, such as the Lord's Prayer and the Gospel of St. Matthew (Black 2001).
People learning the Alutiiq language commonly ask, “How do I make a word plural?” In English, speakers often add an s to a noun to indicate more than one item. For example, one bear becomes many bears. The addition of an s tells us that there are at least 2 bears, but perhaps 3, 4, or even 10!
In Alutiiq creating a plural noun is a little trickier. Most Alutiiq nouns end in q. The q tells us the noun in singular. For example, wiinaq means a sea lion. To create a plural for wiinaq, however, you have to know how many sea lions you want to discuss. If an Alutiiq speaker wants to say that she saw two sea lions on a rock in the harbor – wiinaq takes the dual form – wiinak. In this instance the q at the end of the word becomes a k to indicate a plural of two. If however an Alutiiq speaker wants to say that Kodiak is home to many sea lions, a different type of plural is needed. Here, the q at the end of wiinaq becomes a t – creating the word wiinat. This word tells us that there are at least three sea lions, or perhaps many more.
