We here at Arctic Slope Community Foundation (ASCF) are beyond excited to share with you one of our latest projects, combining Iñupiaq language preservation with modern technology; the language learning website www.inupiaqonline.com.
The website is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and is administered by ASCF. The site was built by Alaska Native web developers Christopher Egalaaq Liu (Yup’ik) and Lonny Alaskuk Strunk (Yup’ik) in conjuncture with acclaimed Iñupiaq academic administrator, linguist, anthropologist, and educator Edna Ahgeak Paniattaaq MacLean, Ph.D.
The site references the North Slope Iñupiaq dictionary (which was primarily written by Dr. Edna MacLean in the 1980s) and combines innovative computer programming to make learning the Iñupiaq language easier for all.
www.inupiaqonline.com is not only a dictionary; it also has a sentence-building function and an audio library to hear the way the words are pronounced. Once a vocabulary is established the person learning can learn the proper way to structure the words in a sentence and then reference the correct pronunciation in the audio library.
Based on the highly successful language website Liu and Strunk made for their Yup’ik language a few years ago, www.inupiaqonline.com is the first of its kind for the North Slope Dialect of Iñupiaq.
Arctic Slope Community Foundation is committed to improving the quality of life for the Iñupiaq people of the North Slope as well as providing quality educational tools for preserving our language and our way of life.
Ikayuutisa avanmun Iñupiuraaġnikun.
Let’s help each other learn Iñupiaq.
*to learn more about Christopher Egalaaq Liu and Lonny Alaskuk Strunk’s company, Yuarcuun Technologies go to https://yuarcuun.github.io/
*to learn more about Edna Ahgeak MacLean, Ph.D., go to https://www.alaskawomenshalloffame.org/alumnae/edna-maclean-ph-d/
*to learn more about Arctic Slope Community Foundation, go to https://www.arcticslopecommunity.org
