Alaska native languages in transition

Osaka: The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku). Senri Ethnological Studies, 4 (1980), pp. 169-203.The tide has changed, however, since 1970 when bilingual education was launched in the Central Yupik Eskimo area (southwest Alaska), followed within a few years by several other language areas. The bilingual programs together with other language movements outside school have started to counteract the long-standing drift toward the decline of at least some languages. Now is probably the most crucial time for survival of the Alaska native languages. This paper is a brief introduction to the changes in the language situation in post-contact native Alaska and the recent language renaissance with special reference to Central Yupik.