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Edna Deacon Biography

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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
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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.

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.