The Endangered Yupik Eskimo Language

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, when a society loses its language, it also can lose a significant amount of its cultural identity. The paper indicates that, in just 20 years, this is happening to the Yupik Eskimo communities in Alaska . The author proposes comparing Yupik language stories to other tales from the Native Americans, the Anglo-Europeans, Africans and the Asians. The paper stresses that, although Yupik stories have been homogenized by their translation into English, enough of the original cultural flavor of the stories remains so that such a comparison could still be made.

From the Paper:

"According to the UNESCO Endangered Languages website, there are only a few pieces of fiction in Eskimo including a book of short stories, mostly, for schoolchildren, and several books of poetry. There are about ten publications of folklore (fairy tales, myths, legends). A number of folklore texts (recorded as scripts) is represented in the works of W.G. Bogoraz and devoted to the studies of Eskimo language. ...There have recently been a few Alaskan stories published by new authors who have adapted older stories."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alaskan Native Language Center. Retrieved March 22, 2007.http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/
• Robins, Robert, and Eugenius Uhlenbeck (eds.). Endangered Languages. Oxford: Berg,. 1992
• UNESCO Endangered Languages. Retrieved March 22, 2007. http://lingsib.unesco.ru/en/languages/eskimo.shtml.htm

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