Lingít Word of the Week: Saak — Hooligan
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 saak, or hooligan. Listen to the audio below to learn how to say saak.
The following transcript is meant to help illustrate the words and sentences.
Keiyishí Bessie Cooley: Saak.
That means hooligan.
Here are some sentences:
Keiyishí Bessie Cooley: Saak eex̱í aag̱áa yatee át akamdulgaaní.
People light hooligan grease.
Keihéenák’w John Martin: Táakw.eetíxʼ áyá yaa yaga.eich saak.
The hooligan always run in the spring.
Kooshdáakʼu Bill Fawcett: Ḵúnáx̱ áwé yaawa.aa wé saak.
The hooligan were really running.
Ḵaakal.áat Florence Marks Sheakley: Taakw eetíxʼ yéi daaduné saak.
People work on ooligan in the spring.
Kaxwaan Éesh George Davis: Saak eix̱í ax̱ x̱ʼéix̱ aawatée.
They gave me hooligan grease to eat.
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.