This material was funded by National Science Foundation grant 0651787. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Symobls used in the transcription

  • {false start}
  • (added for clarity)
  • [translator/transcriber's note]
  • ??? = can’t understand
  • «Lingít quotation marks»

Software Used

Time-aligned text for this video was accomplished using ELAN, Versions 6.0 (2020), 6.1 (2021), and 6.3 (2022) Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Language Archive. Retrieved from https://archive.mpi.nl/tla/elan

We use SLEXIL to render ELAN XML output as interactive web pages. Pronounced "sluck-HAIL", SLEXIL means daylight in the Lushootseed language, for which it was originally developed. The name may also be understod as an acronym: Software Linking ELAN XML to Illuminated Language.

SLEXIL is documented here, maintained on github, can be run interactively on the web, and is actively supported by Paul Shannon who welcomes your feedback.

Edna Deacon recording Deg Xinag in 2023.
Edna Deacon Biography
Edna was raised in Upper Shageluk by her parents Anna and Peter Matthews, who spoke the local Deg Xinag language in their home.  She went to school in Shageluk and learned English but continued to use the Deg Xinag language at home and with her friends. When she married Wilson Deacon and moved to his village of Holikachuk, she continued to speak her own Deg Xinag language with other women from her home village.  Edna moved with her family to Grayling when Holikachuk village moved and kept in close contact with her mother who still lived in Shageluk.

In Grayling Edna continued to use the Deg Xinag language and worked with other elders, both Deg Xit’an and Holikachuk people, on stories and cultural projects in the community. She was one of the contributors to the Deg Xinag Learners’ Dictionary, and also one of the elders involved in the “Conversational Deg Xinag” telephone class. While working on the dictionary Edna recorded various events in her life, which give an important picture of the lifestyle of her family. These recordings are available with bilingual transcripts at https://uas.alaska.edu/arts_sciences/humanities/alaska-native-studies/alaska-native-languages/deg-xinag/index.html

In 2024 Edna serves as a mentor, teaching her language by Zoom and making new recordings in Deg Xinag.

This feature is available only in Chrome web browsers

To compare your pronunciation to that of the elders, click on the microphone icon located at the right top of the main page. This opens the "Record Your Voice" window in which you can record your own pronunciation of any line of interest.

Begin by clicking on the number of a line of an elder speaking. It may help to do this repeatedly, LISTENING more than reading, absorbing the sounds of their speech. (In English, we donʼt talk the same way a printed word is spelled. The same is true for Deg Xinag.)

When you're ready to record yourself, click RECORD in the "Record Your Voice" window, then STOP, then PLAY. You can keep recording yourself with the same line and hear your pronunciation improving!

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Sayings

Speakers are Edna Deacon (ED) and Alta Jerue (AJ) at the home of Alta Jerue in Anvik, AK, October 2002. Recorded by Alice Taff and Donna Miller MacAlpine.
Transcribed and translated by Donna Miller MacAlpine, Alta Jerue, Edna Deacon, and Alice Taff. (words added for clarification), {false start}, [note]
Xidoy yadz gatidhighił.
The door opens slowly.
Q'idong ngine' qogg tadhiyon, viqo xinuxł'an.
Already up there on a flat trail he's walking, (him) you're looking for. [That's what you say when door opens and nobody is there. “Already on the heavenly trail he went, the one you’re looking for.”]
I said send me your wings. For luck.
Ngitth'in sits'in neyteyh.
Your wings to me send. [Said to Raven/Crow to send you luck.]