“I hope this begins your move toward recognizing and celebrating our heart languages of Alaska,” said Walkie Charles, director of the Alaska Native Language Center at UAF. When I began research for this article, he cautioned me that it is a “huge task,” even though it is limited to a relatively short list of names. “As director, I want to ensure that each language is represented and supported by language specialists in each of the regions,” Charles told me.

This article is not a comprehensive language lesson. Pronunciations vary village to village, and phonetic spellings don’t always convey exact sounds. Consider this a resource for pronouncing names that Alaskans do business with and an entry point to learning about Alaska’s twenty official indigenous languages.

Not all twenty are included here; this page may be updated with more. For deeper resources, Alaska Native Language Center has articles for each language.

We are grateful to the speakers who contributed audio clips: Pearl K. Brower (Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corp.), Colleen Bryan (Shee Atiká), Shauna Hegna (Koniag), Ida Hildebrand (Gana-A’Yoo), Nellie Kaigelak (Kuukpik), Aaron Leggett (Dena’ina), Ella Lisbourne (Maniilaq), Hugh Patkotak, Sr. (Olgoonik), Sam Phillips (Toghotthele), Regina Therchik (Calista Corp.).

Also thanks to D. Roy Mitchell, research analyst with the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council.

“I hope this begins your move toward recognizing and celebrating our heart languages of Alaska,” said Walkie Charles, director of the Alaska Native Language Center at UAF. When I began research for this article, he cautioned me that it is a “huge task,” even though it is limited to a relatively short list of names. “As director, I want to ensure that each language is represented and supported by language specialists in each of the regions,” Charles told me.

This article is not a comprehensive language lesson. Pronunciations vary village to village, and phonetic spellings don’t always convey exact sounds. Consider this a resource for pronouncing names that Alaskans do business with and an entry point to learning about Alaska’s twenty official indigenous languages.

Not all twenty are included here; this page may be updated with more. For deeper resources, Alaska Native Language Center has articles for each language.

We are grateful to the speakers who contributed audio clips: Pearl K. Brower (Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corp.), Colleen Bryan (Shee Atiká), Shauna Hegna (Koniag), Ida Hildebrand (Gana-A’Yoo), Nellie Kaigelak (Kuukpik), Aaron Leggett (Dena’ina), Ella Lisbourne (Maniilaq), Hugh Patkotak, Sr. (Olgoonik), Sam Phillips (Toghotthele), Regina Therchik (Calista Corp.).

Also thanks to D. Roy Mitchell, research analyst with the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council.

Language, Place of Origin

Koyukon, Middle Yukon River

Lower Tanana, Nenana

Dena’ina, Upper Cook Inlet

Dena’ina, Lake Clark/Iiamna

Dena’ina, Upper Stony River

The apostrophe in Athabascan languages is a glottal stop; although it is not a “t” sound (in fact, the voice box makes no sound for a beat), glottal stops are familiar in American English as the implied “t” in “uh-oh.” However, this is ignored in “Dena’ina,” where the central vowel has been pronounced as the diphthong “eye” since its earlier spelling: Tanaina. The interchangeable “d” and “t” suggests a softer “t” sound than in English. The crossed “ł” in “K’oyitł’ots’ina” links it to the preceding “t” as one phoneme, the same “tl” in Nahuatl (Aztec) and in Navajo, to which the Native languages of Interior Alaska are more closely related than the Inuit-Yup’ik-Unangax̂ family on the northern and western coasts. Finally, the suffix “-ina” signifies “people,” common in many inhabited place names; however, “Chitina” derives from Tsedi Na’ (Copper River), so “ina” reduces to “na.”

Language, Place of Origin

Tlingit, Sitka

Tlingit is in the Na-Dene family, the same as Athabascan languages, while Haida’s relationship is unclear. As in “Hydaburg,” the word “Haida” is uncomplicated, whereas “Tlingit” starts with a foreign sound: the alveolar lateral affricate. Tlingit is partially tonal, so the pitch of a vowel changes meaning. An acute accent indicates high tone; low tones are generally unmarked. For “Shee Atiká,” however, English speakers can get away with ignoring the accent. An apostrophe, as in Ch’aak’ (Eagle moiety), marks ejective consonants, pronounced with a puff of breath. An underscore, as in Gooch naa (Wolf moiety), places the tongue against the uvula. An “x” is the Greek letter chi, spelled in German or Scottish as “ch.” The Tlingit writing system adds “w” to labialized consonants; the “kw” in Yak-tat Kwáan (people of Yakutat) is a simple example, posing no quandary for English speakers.

Language, Place of Origin

Audio Clips Under Construction

Unangam Tunuu is the language spoken by the Unangax̂ —the circumflex over the “x” places the sound farther back than an unadorned “x,” which is literally the Greek letter chi, spelled in German or Scottish as “ch.” As in other Inuit-Yupik-Aleut languages, “g” is softer than in English, often spelled “gh” in other languages that use the sound; the dotted “g” used elsewhere is, in this language, topped with a circumflex instead. The writing system was formalized in 1972, and the name of the people and language has shifted within the last twenty years. “Ounalashka” and “Unalaska” are the same word, but the former reflects Russian influence (Unangam Tunuu has no “sh” sound, and “o” is only in borrowed words).

Language, Place of Origin

Alutiiq, Kodiak

Alutiiq, Prince William Sound region

Alutiiq, Chenega

Alutiiq, Afognak and Port Lions

Alutiiq, Kodiak Island

The word “Alutiiq” is used by the indigenous people of the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak archipelago, and Prince William Sound who, along with the Unangax̂ of the Aleutian Islands, had been misidentified by Russian colonists as Aleuts. The language is more closely related to Yugtun (Central Alaskan Yup’ik). Common to the Inuit-Yupik-Unangax̂ family, the terminal “q” sound is more guttural than a “k” sound in English. “Chugach” is not to be confused with the Dena’ina Athabascan “Chugiak,” although that place is near the mountains named for the Alutiiq-speaking Chugach Sugpiaq people. Koniag is certainly an Alutiiq organization, yet the name seems to stem from what the Unangax̂ called their neighbors. The corporation for Woody Island, Leisnoi (pronounced “LEZH-noy ”), is also an exonym, meaning simply “woody” in Russian.

Language, Place of Origin

Iñupiaq, Utqiaġvik

Iñupiaq, Utqiaġvik

Iñupiaq, Wainwright

Iñupiaq, Nuiqsut

Iñupiaq, Kotzebue

Iñupiaq (the adjective) and Iñupiat (the plural noun) both contain the “enye” sound familiar to Spanish. The writing system also uses “ŋ” which is the same “ng” as in English (and “English”). The “q” is like a “k” (and was originally written with a “k”) but is more guttural. A dotted “g” is more guttural still, the same sound spelled with “r” in Parisian French, suggesting how far back in the throat it comes from. Even an undotted “g” is velar (from the back of the tongue), softer than “g” in English. Which one is in “Olgoonik”? The old spelling of the Iñupiaq name for Wainwright, Ulġuniq, provides a clue.

Language, Place of Origin

Yugtun, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

Yugtun, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

Yugtun, Dillingham

Yugtun, Tuntutuliak

Yugtun, Toksook Bay

Yugtun, Igiugig

Yugtun, New Stuyahok

Yup’ik is one of a group of languages within the Inuit-Yup’ik-Unangax̂ (or Eskimo-Aleut) family. An apostrophe indicates an elongated consonant, which is similar to, but not exactly like, the glottal stop marked by an apostrophe in Athabascan languages. The group includes Siberian Yup’ik on St. Lawrence Island; Yup’ik (or Yugtun) spoken mostly inland; and Cup’ik in Chevak and along the coast. Right away, “c” makes a “ch” sound; Choggiung is an alternate spelling of “Curyung” and is pronounced the same; notice that “gg” suggests an r-ish sound. Also notice that “v” in “Calivika” approximates a “w” sound. The suffix “-miut” (also Anglicized to “-mute”) means “inhabitants of”; “nuna” means “land” in the sense of ground, place, country, and village.