Editing Eyak language (section)

{{Short description|Extinct Na-Dené language of US}}
{{refimprove|date=January 2018}}<!--many paragraphs are not cited-->
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Eyak
| nativename       = 
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|ath|ʔiːjaːq|}}
| states           = [[United States]]
| region           = [[Cordova, Alaska]]
| ethnicity        = [[Eyak people|Eyak]]
| extinct          = January 21, 2008, with the death of [[Marie Smith Jones]]
| familycolor      = Na-Dené
| fam1             = [[Dene-Yeniseian languages|Dené-Yeniseian]]?
| fam2             = [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dené]]
| fam3             = [[Athabaskan languages|Athabaskan]]–Eyak
| script           = [[Latin script|Latin]]
| nation           = {{flag|Alaska}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/21/305688602/alaska-oks-bill-making-native-languages-official|title = Alaska OKs Bill Making Native Languages Official|newspaper = NPR|date = 21 April 2014|last1 = Chappell|first1 = Bill}}</ref>
| iso3             = eya
| linglist         = eya.html
| glotto           = eyak1241
| glottorefname    = Eyak
| map              = Eyak lang.png
| mapcaption       = Pre-contact distribution of Eyak
| notice           = IPA
| revived          = early 2010s
| speakers2        = [[second language|L2]]: 1 fluent ([[Guillaume Leduey]])
}}

'''Eyak''' is an extinct [[Na-Dené languages|Na-Dené language]], historically spoken by the [[Eyak people]], indigenous to south-central [[Alaska]], near the mouth of the [[Copper River (Alaska)|Copper River]]. The name Eyak comes from a [[Chugach Sugpiaq]] name ({{lang|ems|Igya'aq}}) for an Eyak village at the mouth of the Eyak River.<ref name="Krausseyakhistory">Michael E. Krauss 2006.[http://ccil.org/~cowan/temp/43.2.krauss.pdf A history of Eyak language documentation and study: Fredericæ de Laguna in Memoriam] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831023534/http://ccil.org/~cowan/temp/43.2.krauss.pdf |date=2013-08-31 }}. ''Arctic Anthropology'' 43 (2): 172-217</ref> 

The closest relatives of Eyak are the [[Athabaskan languages]]. The Eyak–Athabaskan group forms a basic division of the Na-Dené language family, the other being [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]].

Numerous Tlingit place names along the Gulf Coast are derived from names in Eyak; they have obscure or even nonsensical meanings in Tlingit, but oral tradition has maintained many Eyak etymologies. The existence of Eyak-derived Tlingit names along most of the coast towards southeast Alaska is strong evidence that the prehistoric range of Eyak was once far greater than it was at the time of European contact. This confirms both Tlingit and Eyak oral histories of migration throughout the region.