Trash Talk (language)

[Andre Cramblit]

Yup'ik trash talk
Nelson Island group tells how it's cleaning up the Bush

By ALEX deMARBAN, Anchorage Daily News

Published: February  9, 2006

Encroaching rivers and melting permafrost are threatening
the villages around Nelson Island, but one thing the people
won't lose is their language, culture and traditions, said
Andrew George of Nightmute.

"If we lose this, we lose our way of life," George, 79,
told a crowded room of Yup'ik speakers from Western Alaska
on Wednesday.

He spoke confidently -- without a microphone -- in the lyrical
tones of his own language. During his talk at the Egan Center,
a handful of English-speakers, as if suddenly transported
to a foreign country, wore headsets and followed an interpreter.

You can read the full story online at:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7431884p-7342767c.html