Guide to the Eyak Language Collection

Container List

Scope and Content Note

Eyak is not an Athabaskan language, but is clearly related genetically to Athabaskan as a whole. It was once spoken on the southeastern coast of Alaska from Controller Bay as far as Cape Fairweather beyond Yakutat, but was progressively assimilated to Tlingit, and with the northward advance of Tlingit, Eyak moved into the Copper River Delta as far as present-day Cordova in the 18th century. The last native speaker of Eyak passed away in January 2008.

 
Michael Krauss has devoted a large part of his research to Eyak and hopes that not only are the bibliography and the contributions of his predecessors well covered here, but hopes also, in spite of the small number of entries (some of them, such as the Eyak Dictionary, very extensive works), that this important language will be adequately documented in its last days.
 
[Krauss and McGary]