Lingít Word of the Week: Jánwu — Mountain Goat
This is Lingít Word of the Week. Each week, we feature a Lingít word voiced by master speakers. Lingít has been spoken throughout present-day Southeast Alaska and parts of Canada for over 10,000 years.
Gunalchéesh to X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and the University of Alaska Southeast for sharing the recorded audio for this series.
This week’s word is jánwu, or mountain goat. Listen to the audio below to learn how to say jánwu.
The following transcript is meant to help illustrate the words and sentences.
Keiyishí Bessie Cooley: Jánwu.
That means mountain goat.
Here are some sentences:
Keiyishí Bessie Cooley: Tʼaaḵú Héeni yíx̱ yaa ndaḵúx̱u, jánwu duteen neech, wé shaa kaadé.
When boating on the Taku River, people always see mountain goats on the mountains.
Ḵaakal.áat Florence Marks Sheakley: Jánwu Tʼaaḵudáx̱ du.únt.
People get mountain goats from the Taku.
Kaxwaan Éesh George Davis: Jánwu shaayáx̱ wudlitl’éit’
The mountain goat climbed along the face of the mountain.
You can hear each installment of Lingít Word of the Week on the radio throughout the week.
Additional language resources:
Find biographies for the master speakers included in this lesson here.
Learn more about why we use Lingít instead of Tlingit here.