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GUIDE TO THE DENA’INA LANGUAGE COLLECTION (1778-2004)
Alaska Native Language Archives
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Box 757680
Fairbanks, AK 99775
INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION
COLLECTION SUMMARY:
Title: Dena’ina Language Collection.
Extent: 24 manuscript boxes and 0.5 ft. books, covering 8 linear feet.
Repository Location: Alaska Native Language Archive, 406 Brooks Building, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Please consult with the Alaska Native Language Center for information regarding the specific location of materials within the archive.
Forms of Material:The collection includes both original and photocopied manuscript and typescript documents comprised of academic research papers; fieldnotes, particularly pertaining to Dena’ina place names, phonology, and verb forms; wordlists; ethnographic, religious, and traditional texts; and educational materials.
Languages: Collection languages are primarily Dena’ina and English; a number of early documents are in Russian, German, or French; one document is in Spanish. Some documents offers Dena’ina words in comparison to other Athabaskan languages in Alaska.
Abstract: All materials in the Dena’ina collection are either written in or about the Dena’ina language. The earliest documents date from the late 1700s and early 1800s, and contain wordlists, dictionaries, and expedition or ethnographic reports; however most of the collection dates from the mid to late 19th century. The bulk of the later materials consists of fieldnotes, representing research on vocabulary, grammar, placenames, and traditional, and ethnographic texts. Originals and copies of fieldnotes by James Kari, the primary researcher on Dena’ina since 1972, form an important and large part of the collection. Educational materials are also well represented, and the collection includes published materials pertaining to the ethnography of the Dena’ina. Photocopied material occassionaly represents original material held by other repositories and certain reproduction and use restriction apply.
INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS:
Access: Collection access is permitted during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30, and further by appointment throughout the year.
Preferred Citation: Please list author, date, and title of publication, whether item is a photocopy or original, location of original document if different than ANLC, then note folder title, Dena’ina Language Collection, Alaska Native Language Center Archive, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Restrictions: Visitors to the collection may copy non-restricted items, though lack of clerical support prohibits ANLC from processing photocopy requests online or by mail at this time. In addition, many items in the collection are restricted in their use by their authors or by the repositories from which we obtained our copies, and may not be further copied here without permission of the original repositories.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:
Acquisition Information: Dr. Michael Krauss of the Alaska Native Language Center began collecting materials now in the Dena’ina collection when he arrived at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1960. Krauss made great effort to assemble a near-comprehensive collection of primary and secondary source material, in the form of wordlists, fieldnotes, manuscript texts, journal articles, and previously published articles on the language. Kari has been largely responsible for contributing his materials to the Center, especially during the processing work in 2002-2006. The staff of the Alaska Native Language Center have also contributed primary material to the collection through their fieldnotes, class lectures, and academic research papers.
Processing History: The first major organization of the Dena’ina Collection occurred in the late 1970s and led to the publication of an annotated catalogue based on folder titles. This system has been retained, and recent work (2002-2006) has concentrated on document preservation, the development of an electronic database, and the creation of a finding aid.
Acknowledgements: Some of the photocopies obtained by Krauss were made from originals held in other repositories, including the Alaska and Polar Regions Collection, Elmer Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska.
Funding: The National Endowment for the Humanities (grant # PA-50139-03) funded collection processing and finding aid development.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Language Information: Dena’ina (earlier known as Tanaina) is the Athabascan language of the Cook Inlet area with four dialects: The Upper Inlet, including the villages of Eklutna, Knik, Montana Creek, Susitna, and Tyonek; the Outer Inlet, including Kenai, Kustatan, and Seldovia (with no more speakers in the latter); Iliamna, including Pedro Bay, Old Iliamna, and Lake Iliamna; and inland areas, including Nondalton, Lime Village, and Stony River. Of the total population of about 900 people, about 75 speak the language. A practical orthography was developed in 1972, and since then, a considerable literary and educational literature has developed. Much of the recent linguistic documentation has been the work of James Kari.
Scope and Content Note: The scope of the Dena’ina language collection is quite broad in that it strives to include all material written or published in or about the Dena’ina Language. Dr. Michael Krauss made an effort to collect all things Dena’ina, and has developed a nearly comprehensive collection, which has been greatly supplemented in recent years through donations by Kari.
Generally, the collection contains materials relating to linguistic fieldwork, academic research, and educational materials for schoolchildren. By far the largest part of the collection relates to the fieldnotes of various reseachers, especially from the 1960s to the present.
The earliest records (ca. date from the late 18th and early 19th centuries and include extracts of expedition reports of English, Russian, and Spanish explorers with Dena’ina wordlists; these include relevant sections of reports of the expeditions of Cook and Lisiansky, among others. There are a significant number of items from the mid to late 19th century on the lexicon, phonology, and comparative study of Dena’ina in relation to other Athabascan languages, including some works by Leopold Radloff, Stephan Wowodsky, and numerous others. Most of these early items (ca. 25 items) are photocopied from holdings in other repositories, and many consist of just the relevant pages of larger publications.
Lexical studies and ethnographic studies continue to dominate through the 1960s, although from the 1950s on, many of the holdings are original manuscripts and typescripts, and there is a significant increase in the range of linguistic documentation, including the first documentation of various dialects (e.g. Gordon Marsh’s collection of Inland dialect vocabulary) and studies of phonology and phonetics (e.g. Michael Krauss). A number of holdings are the result of the work of people from the Summer of Institute of Linguistics (SIL), such as David Shinen.
A majority of the collection (ca. 150 items) consists of the fieldnotes and publications pertaining to linguistic documentation from the 1970s to the present; important contributors include especially Joan Tenenbaum, James Kari, and Peter Kalifornsky, among others. Joan Tenenbaum contributed fairly extensive materials on lexical and grammatical studies, traditional texts, and a dictionary from 1973 to 1977 (ca.11 items). James Kari has been the primary researcher on Dena’ina since 1972. Though many of the fieldnotes are originals, some are photocopies of originals still in use by Kari. The materials include research and analyses of traditional and ethnographic texts (including songs), grammar (including verb and noun stem classifications, notes on aspect, and more), semantically-based wordlists, place names, comparisons with other Athabascan languages, and language contact. In addition, Kari’s contributions include a large subset of educational materials, including especially papers and notes pertaining to literacy workshops, primers for children, and language learning materials. Much of his work on literacy occurred in the 1970s. Two other authors important to the Dena’ina collection are Peter Kalifornsky (ca. 30 items) and Shem Pete (4 items), native speakers with whom Kari worked closely over several decades. Kalifornsky’s materials include stories, songs, religious materials, correspondence, and work on literacy and language learning materials; Pete’s materials include especially traditional and ethnographic stories. Finally, both Kari and Priscilla Russell Kari (8 items) have contributed ethnographic studies, with Dena’ina terms for plants, animals, places, etc.
Educational materials (ca. 34 items, excluding Kari’s work) form another significant part of the Dena’ina collection. Many native speakers took part in the development of language learning materials, often published through the National Bilingual Materials Development Center in Anchorage; one of the more prolific authors was Albert Wassilie. Although the vast majority of the work was conducted in the 1970s, there have been recent efforts to produce new language learning materials, and some items date from 2003 and 2004 (3 items).
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION:
The Dena’ina Language Collection adheres to the organizational schema developed and applied to each language within the Alaska Native Language Archives by Michael Krauss and Mary Jane McGary in the late 1970s. It involves a system of call numbers (folder numbers) aimed at arranging items chronologically by author. The files are generally organized by author, and thereunder by date of ‘publication’ or ‘work’. In files with multiple authors, the first or earliest author is used. ‘Authorship’ should be interpreted loosely to include not only author in the traditional sense, but also collector, translator, transcriber, speaker, editor, compiler, or informant; these roles are generally indicated. The call number system codes the language series, author, and date. ‘Authorship’ should be interpreted loosely to include not only author in the traditional sense, but also collector, translator, transcriber, speaker, editor, compiler, or informant; these roles are generally indicated. A brief explanation of the call number system follows:
The call number first notes the language, Dena’ina, with the two-letter code “TI” (for Tanaina, an earlier accepted designation of the language). The second element of the call number is a three-digit number consisting of the last three digits of the year of the author’s first known work on or in the Dena’ina language. When an item has more than one author, the date is that of the first-named author.
The third element of the call number is the first letter of the author’s surname, or several letters in the case of co-authors. For example, K refers to Kari; WB refers to Albert C. Wassillie and Nickoli Balluta. In the case of multiple authors with the same starting date and initial letter of the last name, as with Kari and Kalifornsky, who both began working on the language in 1972, one author is given an additional lowercase letter; Kalifornsky is Kl.
The fourth element of the call number gives the date of the item. The given date on the published item is used as the item date. When an item includes several editions, translations, or reprinting of a single item, the date of the specific edition in the archive is listed. In some cases, and academic year date appears on educational publications, such as 78/79; here the first year has been used as an item date. In the dating of unpublished materials, if a date appears on the item, it is used as the publication date, except in rare cases where we have concrete knowledge that the date is in error. Undated items have been assigned dates based on our knowledge of the authors work. Some of theses dates are quite approximate and this is usually noted in the description. If multiple items were published in the same year, they are distinguished by letters of the alphabet following the date, e.g. “1973a”, “1973b”.
Some examples:
TI972K1978d reads as the fourth of several items produced in 1978 by Kari, who began working on the Dena’ina language in 1972. TI974WB1975a reads as one of two or more items produced in 1975 by Wassillie and Balluta; Wassillie began working on Dena’ina in 1974.
List of Authors and Contributors
Subject List
Container List
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