Uyaquq

Who is Uyaquq?

Uyaquq was a Yupik Moravian Helper and linguistic genius who went from being an illiterate adult to inventing a series of writing systems for his native language and then producing translations of the Bible and other religious works in a period of five years.

Uyaquq was born into a family of shamans in the lower Kuskokwim River valley central Alaska in the mid-1860s. Even by the standards of the day, Uyaquk was a small man. He became a shaman in early adulthood, but converted to Christianity after his father converted. Although his father became a Russian Orthodox, Uyaquk became a leader and missionary in the Alaskan Moravian Church. His name means "Neck" in English and he was called that by some English speakers.

As a missionary, Uyaquq is said to have converted whole villages of Yupik in the lower Kuskokwim River valley to Christianity. He is said to have had a gentle personality and have been a very erudite speaker.

Uyaquq was fascinated by the idea that the English-speaking Moravians could quote a passage of scripture several times using exactly the same words each time. He discovered that they accomplished this by reading from a written text. Uyaquk became fascinated with the idea of writing and, according to his descendants, received the idea for the first version of the script he used to write his dialect, Yugtun, in a dream.