How a random guy from France saved a dying language in Alaska - Eyak

[@plotinien]

Dear Shawn, thank you so much for making such a well-documented video about the Eyaks and my journey with them! (Clickbait is great, btw. ;-)) Thank you, also, for mentioning my mentor, Dr. Michael E. Krauss, and those who had worked on the Eyak language before him. That is very much appreciated. (No, I'm not the author of that forum post. (That part made me laugh so hard!) I did know about it, though, but I still have no idea who wrote it.) -- Diversity is key. May your channel inspire people to preserve endangered languages!

[@imshawngetoffmylawn]

Oh Wow, I have no words! Thank you so much for your response, Guillaume! Never would I have thought that you’d actually find this video and respond to it, I think it’s incredible. Thank you again for all your hard work! I’d love to chat a bit and ask a few questions I’ve had while doing research, if you have the time at some point!

[@broccoli9308]

Crazy to think that for every story like this there is probably a dozen ones where there was nobody interested in the language anymore and it just died silently.

[@a.v.j5664]

As 14-year old finnish boy whos main interest is languages, more specifically ENDANGERED languages. leduey is my idol. I am currently learnign livonian (līvõ kēļ / rānda kēļ), and my dream is to help boost the revitalization attempts of livonian by making and translating literature in the language.

[@plotinien]

Thank you for your words, A.V.J. ! (I'm Guillaume Leduey.) I hope you can achieve your dream. This is such a beautiful and meaningful cause!

[@kulturawalki]

You are a chad af

[@karilamminpaa8987]

Olipas löytö - siis tämä "How a random guy..." että varsinkin vastauksesi ! Liiviä siis. Muistelen kuulleeni että Pouline (?) Klavina olisi ollut viimeinen liivinatiivi. Itselleni saamet ovat iso sytyke kielimaailman loputtoman rikkaassa ryteikössä. Kiintoisaa elämää Sinulle !

[@a.v.j5664]

@@karilamminpaa8987 Liivin kieli ei enään onneksi ole kuollout. Se saatiin elvytettyä 2023 kun 2020 vuonna syntynyt Kuldi Medne on alkanut puhumaan liiviä äidinkielenään. Ennen tätä viimeinen liivin äidinkielen puhuja oli Grizelda Kristiņa joka kuoli vuonna 2013

[@HayleyPainter]

That’s my great grandma. Thank you for making this!

[@KikiYushima]

This is so inspiring. I'm somebody that's fascinated with the Ainu people of Japan and I would really learn to love the language to help preserve it.

[@oqqaynewaddingxtwjy7072]

Y-yay-ray-ke-re-e na thanks `Kiki `wa `Get off my lawn`=Keutum -o-ke-re kur Nis-po/pa , Y-ran-kar-a-ap-h-te-e- na !greeting ,Ta-ne Ainu itak Hokkaido 10 dialekts= Kutcham-a Sakhalin, Amur , North Kuriles ({Kamchatka= Alexander Akulov }) revivalist=Itaq A=e~qo-te-qo-t-qeutum -o-qe-re qur To faint away and revive. {Lit: “died and died”}. kindle book ,Ainu itak language Kiki se-qor-an “I would really learn to love the language Nqasan,Eyaq LtaqOta Ainu ! to help preserve it.“kunpe on qumpikaa which, And think before you write such words ,once you start you will talk to no one in Ainu unless you write to me and I am so deep in the Ainu tane puyar-a start at-pake an hosh-ki-no i-ki-yan wa a-ki-ro-ro. ainu.ninjal.ac.jp/topic/dictionary/jp/

[@krzysiaj]

i am so glad you are back for good. thanks for familiarising us with the history of the eyak language. great video, although i wouldn't expect anything less from you. i can't wait for you to continue with the series! pyrsk from silesia

[@jaycorwin1625]

Very interesting, Sean. I met Marie Smith over thirty years ago when she was an old woman, and Michael Krauss, too, when he introduced her to the public as someone he had discovered who could still speak Eyak. It was on one of my trips home from graduate school, and of course because my family included grandparents who spoke Tlingit as their first language, the fate of all the other languages was important to me. I wasn't crazy about Michael Krauss's ideas of just recordingn languages, so I gave my own advice to people: don't teach that language to your kids and grandchildren, SPEAK it to them as your only language with them and they will speak it, not learn it. Later on I worked with other people on special native language projects in Alaska. There is no real "enemy" when it comes to preserving language except for popular culture. Russian, by the way, was a moribund language in Alaska when I was growing up. I don't think anyone from the old era of Russia in particular villages is left to speak it, but other Russians have arrived in the interim, so it wasn't lost. And yes, some of us treasure the Russian history there, too.

[@ajrollo1437]

I have a friend who is a native Dene speaker (Northern Canada. I think it is just called Dene.), it was her first language. And even she admits that it's HARD. The Dene family of languages seem like they are from outer space. So extra props to this French dude.

[@valeriobenedetti7791]

I love this channel

[@LexisLang]

This is so cool! I'm quite interested in rarer languages, so it's lovely to hear stories like this and see people like you spreading the word about these languages! :)

[@dbass4973]

a successful revitalisation requires at least one family with children raised as native speakers. even if parents are L2 speakers their children can become L1 especially siblings. the greater the number of such families the better

[@anthonymyers3265]

Hey Sean, just found your videos today while I was searching for videos of Romagnol speakers (rabbit warren) and found your 1st and last videos charming and interesting! Well done sir, keep up the good work!

[@jck956]

This is such a mood, “As a boy in France, Leduey dreamed of learning to speak Lithuanian while other kids played Playstation.” While I personally didn’t find language learning until 2018-2019 It’s one of the most essential parts of me today

[@ceohadenough894]

Would love to see the Koryak and Itillmen language

[@laurentg3510]

bonjour de france, great story

[@rshirkhanov]

Such a crazy story. Ебануться можно. ❤

[@oqqaynewaddingxtwjy7072]

Anothe beautiful story