LANGUAGE
Lingít, Xaad Kíl, Sm’algyax
(See also Language Programs and Language Resources)
Restoring Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages is a priority. Across Southeast Alaska, we sponsor programs that document, preserve and revitalize Native languages. Our Resources page offers a variety of learning tools, including dictionaries, vocabulary lists, teaching aids and much more.
About our work
Through the work of fluent Native speakers working with linguists, we have been on the forefront of documenting Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian and developing orthographies for these historically oral languages, which have appeared in written form only in recent times. The Sealaska Heritage Institute has produced numerous language books, including the most comprehensive dictionaries ever produced for Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian.
In the late 1990s, our Board of Trustees, realizing that time was running out, steered the institute more toward revitalization of the languages. Most fluent speakers are elderly, so the institute's early efforts began with an immersion program where students and fluent speakers spoke only in a Native language to create language habitats. Over the years, some advanced language students began to emerge and today, they are teaching some level of Native languages in public schools.
In recent years, we launched our Haa Shuká Community Language Learning Project, designed to help revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities. Find out more here.
