The Qik'rtarmiut Alutiit (Alutiiq People of the Island) language program is dedicated to documenting and revitalizing the Alutiiq Language of the Kodiak Archipelago.

April with Alutiiq Language Masters Recording Alutiiq Songs

Fluent speakers work with Alutiiq language learners and other professionals to study the language, make recordings for the Museum's archives, and create learning materials for all ages. The Qik'rtarmiut Alutiit Regional Language Advisory Committee meets bimonthly to guide language program efforts. This committe includes Native corporation and tribal representatives, educational organizations, and interested individuals.  Our current projects include - Alutiiq Living Words - a three year initiative dcoumenting Alutiiq speach, vocabulary and cultural traditions with the help of Alutiiq speakers, and create an Alutiiq Language Web Portal.  With funding from the National Science Foundation. Alutiiq Word of the Week - producing cultural lessons for weekly broadcast weekly on  KMXT public radio, and publication in the Kodiak Daily Mirror each Friday.  Also available by email and electronic subscription.

The Alutiiq Living Words Project
With funding from the National Science Foundation's Documenting Endangered Languages program, the Alutiiq Museum is recording the Alutiiq language in an extensive project designed to increase knowledge of Alutiiq.  The Alutiiq Living Words project involves fluent Kodiak Elders, semi-fluent second language speakers, and other interested community members. The project began in the summer of 2007 and will run through the summer of 2010. It has three central objectives,

Elder Mary Peterson

Field Research
Semi-fluent field researchers are working with Elders to document the Alutiiq language and cultural knowledge through digital audio and video recordings in Alutiiq.  These recordings will be indexed and archived for long term preservation.  Stored on archival-quality CDs and DVDs, invaluable cultural and linguistic knowledge will be preserved for future community members and language learners.

Web Portal
Selected audio and video clips from our field research have been transcribed and translated, and made available on the internet through an Alutiiq Language Web Portal. Selections highlight community traditions, subsistence practices, and local histories in a format searchable by speaker, village, sub-dialect, and key word.  The web portal also feature an interactive place names map.

New Words Council at Work

New Words Council
To help the Alutiiq language grow with the times, Elders from around Kodiak meet monthly to develop new words.  Terms like "computer" "elevator" and "linguist" are being created by fluent speakers with the assistance of semi-fluent associate members. Approved words will be published at the end of the project, and posted on the Alutiiq Language Web Portal. This process is being documented for the benefit of other threatened language groups around the world.

To find out more about the Alutiiq Living Words Project,  to learn about the materials and opportunities available for studying Alutiiq, or to participate in saving our language, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it at the Alutiiq Museum at (907) 486-7003.

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Members of the New Words Council at Work

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Learn More:
There are a growing number of resources available on the Alutiiq Language.
Here are the most popular;

Alutiiq Picture Dictionary

• Alutiiq Numbers and Alutiiq Alphabet poster set.
• Alutiiq Traditions - a booklet of the museum's most cultural popular lessons with Alutiiq vocabulary throughout.
• Alutiiq Picture Dictionary - learn common vocabulary with pictures in this 57 page volume.
• Alutiingcut Little Alutiiqs DVD - An animated DVD with Alutiiq words and phrases for young children.
• Alutiiq Word of the Week Lessons - subscribe to our weekly lessons by email or RSS feed, or visit our searchable online archive to study words and phrases.
• Children's Book Translations - Brown Bear Brown Bear and other favorite titles for young readers with an Alutiiq translation.
• GO FISH - card game sets featuring picture of Kodiak animals and their Alutiiq names.
• Kodiak Alutiiq Conversational Phrase Book - A paperback book and audio CD to help you learn common Alutiiq phrases
• Saving Our Language - an educational box for teachers
• Sharing Words - An Alutiiq alphabet poster and an interactive audio CD filled with language lessons.
• Web Portal - watch videos of Alutiiq speakers, read transcripts, and use an interactive place names map - all available on line at the Alutiiq Language Web Portal.
• Unguwallriat Yaasiget – Animal Boxes: kits with beanie babies representing local animals, animal flash cards, action flash cards, and a bingo game, ideas for classroom activities that will teach Alutiiq animal vocabulary and basic verbs, and an audio CD with all of the Alutiiq words and sentences used in the box.

Native People & Languages Map

• A Conversational Dictionary of Kodiak Alutiiq - by Jeff Leer
• A Classroom Grammar of Koniag Alutiiq: Kodiak Island Dialect - by Jeff Leer
• Native People and Languages of Alaska - a color wall map - by M. Krauss
• Inuit-Yupik-Aleut-world - a color wall map

• Indigenous New Words Creation - Perspectives from Alaska and Hawai'i, by Larry Kimura, Hawaiian Lexicon Committee, and Isiik April G.L. Laktonen Counceller (2009).  In Indigenous Language Revitalization - Encouragement, Guidance & Lessons Learned, edited by J. Reyhner and L. Lockard, Northern Arizona University College of Education, Flagstaff.

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Many of us are familiar with seeing Alutiiq words in our local media. From the welcoming Cama'i! in Kodiak travel brochures to the thank you Quyanaas appearing in the local newspaper, we are now accustomed to the growing presence of the Alutiiq language in Kodiak communities. Travelling exhibits with Alutiiq text have raised awareness. The most prolific project regarding the Alutiiq language, however, is the Alutiiq Word of the Week program, which has appeared on public radio KMXT , in the Kodiak Daily Mirror , at the Alutiiq Museum, on the internet, and has been emailed and faxed to all corners of the Alutiiq world.

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