A new collection of articles on Indigenous Language Revitalization includes a chapter by Isiik April Counceller on the creation of new words in Alutiiq. Isiik describes various strategies used by the Alutiiq New Words Council to create new words in Alutiiq. One example is the word Kicarwik as the name of Alaska's largest city, Anchorage. This word is based on the Alutiiq verb kicar- 'to anchor' and the postbase (suffix) -vik 'place to'. In this way the New Words Council fills a need for vocabulary development, but equally importantly the Council brings together elders and language learners to work together on language revitalization. It is a great model which could be readily adopted by other language communities.
The chapter text can be downloaded as a pdf file. The book will be available in print form in January.