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GUIDE TO THE TANACROSS LANGUAGE COLLECTION (1839-2003)
INFORMATION FOR RESEARCHERS
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION
COLLECTION SUMMARY:
Title: Tanacross Language Collection
Extent: 5 manuscript boxes and one 3-by-5 card file box covering 3.1 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 fieldnotes, wordlists, education publications, academic research papers, and notes and handouts from various Tanacross language classes. Occasional ethnographic and traditional texts are present, as are a few placename lists and academic journal articles.
Languages: Collection languages are both Tanacross and English, with one early document in German. On rare occasion, a document offers Tanacross words in comparison to other Athabaskan languages in Alaska.
Abstract: All materials in the Tanacross collection are either written in or about the Tanacross language. The earliest documents come from expedition accounts and the later material comes from contributions by the Alaska Native Language Center staff. Much of the collection dates from the mid- to late-1970s during an era of more intensive fieldwork with the Tanacross language; although there has been an influx of recent work in the late 1990s. The bulk of the collection consists of manuscripts related to Tanacross lexicon, including various Tanacross dictionaries and wordlists derived from fieldwork. A slightly smaller number of folders contain education publications, in particular elementary readers and language workshop proceedings and workbooks. Phonology, grammar, and dialectal materials are less well-represented. A few items pertain to Tanacross placenames, language class notes, and traditional stories and the collection also includes research papers and conference materials. 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, Tanacross 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 Tanacross 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. 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 Tanacross 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: The word Tanacross has been used to refer both to a village in eastern Alaska and to the language spoken there. A more appropriate term may be Dihthaad Xt'een Aandeg' The Mansfield People's Language, referring to the traditional village of Mansfield, north of Tanacross. Tanacross is the ancestral language of the Mansfield-Ketchumstock and Healy Lake-Jospeph Village bands. It is spoken today at Healy Lake, Dot Lake, and Tanacross on the middle Tanana River. The total population is about 220, of whom about 65 speak the language.
Originally included in "Transitional Tanana" (transitional between Minto and Upper Tanana) by Dr. Michael Krauss, University of Alaska Fairbanks, as late a 1973, linguists defined Tanacross as a separate Athabaskan language in 1974. A practical alphabet was established in 1973 and a few booklets have been published by the Alaska Native Language Center. Very little language material was published between the late 1970s and early 1990s. More recent linguistic scholarship (since the 1990s) includes research on Tanacross phonology and the preparation of handouts and language exercises developed for classes and workshops.
Scope and Content Note: The scope of the Tanacross language collection is quite broad in that it strives to include all material written or published in or about the Tanacross Language. Dr. Michael Krauss made an effort to collect all things Tanacross, and has developed a nearly comprehensive collection. that includes material from a wide time range and variety of sources. For example, the holdings vary from an 1839 expedition report written by Ferdinand Von Wrangell in which he provided a comparative language table with Tanacross as one of the columns, to academic linguistic papers handling pitch, tone, and intonation in Tanacross.
Generally, the collection contains materials relating to linguistic fieldwork, academic research, and educational materials; the latter of which includes classroom materials such as texts, handouts, student worksheets, and lecture notes. Fieldnotes are a dominant category, with material from roughly 1960 through 2003, and, though there are some originals, many of the fieldnotes are photocopies provided by the author or field researcher. Fieldnotes provide material such as lexical lists, notes on grammar and phonology, placenames, and in some cases translations or transcriptions of traditional stories and religious texts. However, comparatively little material concerns religious texts in the Tanacross Language, and only a handful of traditional stories can be found in the collection.
Another dominant category is educational material that runs the gamut from elementary readers and children's literacy exercises to dictionaries to college-level class materials and handouts. This material is disbursed between the 1970s through 2003, and includes publications from entities such as the Alaska Native Language Center, Gateway School District, Eskimo Language Workshop, and the Yukon Native Language Center. Materials derived from academic research tend to date from the 1990s through 2003, though some earlier research papers may be found. All aspects of dialects, grammar and phonology are covered in the academic papers and may be handled in general terms, such as Dr. Gary Holton's "Introduction to the Tanacross Writing System," or very specific terms such as "Fortis and Lenis Fricatives in Tanacross Athabaskan" by the same author.
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION:
The Tanacross 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. A brief explanation of the call number system follows.
The call number first notes the language, Tanacross, with the two-letter code "TC." 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 Tanacross 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, BL refers to Brean and Leer. Note that this is a liberal use of the word "author." In many cases it is actually referring to a collector, translator, transcriber, speaker, editor, compiler, or informant. Under certain circumstances, our assignment of authorship differs from that of the item itself, and refers to the person chiefly responsible in collecting, compiling, or editing the material. The same is true of wordlists collected by one person then published by another as part of a larger work. The role of the "author" is described in parenthesis following their name, and where appropriate, additional "authors" are noted in the item description.
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. The dating of unpublished materials presents more problems. 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.
Some Examples:
TC961K1962 reads as an item produced in 1962 by Michael Krauss who began working on the Tanacross language in 1961. TC997H2001 reads as an item produced in 2001 by Gary Holton who started working on the Tanacross language in 1997.
List of Authors and Contributors
Subject List
Container List
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