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GUIDE TO THE UPPER KUSKOKWIM LANGUAGE COLLECTION (1843-2003)
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: Upper Kuskokwim Language Collection.
Extent: 4 manuscript boxes and books covering 2 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 Upper Kuskokwim place names, phonology, and verb forms; wordlists; ethnographic and traditional texts; and educational materials.
Languages: Collection languages are both Upper Kuskokwim and English, with one work in Russian. Some documents offers Upper Kuskokwim words in comparison to other Athabaskan languages in Alaska.
Abstract: All materials in the Upper Kuskokwim collection are either written in or about the Upper Kuskokwim language. The earliest documents date from the mid- to late 1800s; they are primarily reports of expeditions with place name information and some word lists. Most of the collection dates from 1960s and 1970s, with a focus on bilingual educational materials in the Upper Kuskokwim language, much of which was published through the Alaska State Operated Schools in Anchorage. Fieldnotes by Collins and Krauss also form an important part of the collection and tend to focus on dialects, phonology and verb forms. Work on grammars and traditional texts are less well represented. The collection also includes research papers. 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, Upper Kuskokwim 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 Upper Kuskokwim 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 Upper Kuskokwim 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: Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan was identified as a distinct language by Krauss in 1961. In earlier literature, it was included as a dialect of Ingalik (e.g. Osgood); Hosley calls it Kolchan. It is spoken in the Alaska villages of Telida and Nikolai, and McGrath, in the Upper Kuskokwim river drainage, with only minor dialectal differences between the villages. It is most closely related to the Tanana language. Of a total population of 160, about 40 people still speak the language. Much of the linguistic documentation has been the work of Raymond Collins, who began linguistic work at Nikolai in 1964, when he established a practical orthography, and Betty Petruska, with whom Collins worked to create educational materials.
Scope and Content Note: The scope of the Upper Kuskokwim language collection is quite broad in that it strives to include all material written or published in or about the Upper Kuskokwim Language. Dr. Michael Krauss made an effort to collect all things Upper Kuskokwim, and has developed a nearly comprehensive collection. There are currently about 100 items in the collection. Generally, the collection contains materials relating to linguistic fieldwork, academic research, and educational materials for schoolchildren. Comparatively little material concerns religious texts in the Upper Kuskokwim Language, and only a handful of traditional stories can be found in the collection.
There was very little linguistic documentation of Upper Kuskokwim prior to 1959, and there are only two items from this early period, both largely ethnographic in nature. Linguistic documentation essentially begins with Herbert Zimmerman’s collection of words and phrases in 1959, and fieldwork by Hosley and Krauss on the Upper Kuskokwim sound system and lexicon in the early 1960s. The most prolific contributor to fieldwork on the language is Raymond Collins (18 items), whose work spans the period from 1964 to 1979 and includes studies of the lexicon, phonology, place names, and grammar, as well as his work on developping educational materials. There has been noticeably less documentation of the language during the 1980s and 1990s; most has been ethnographic or sociolinguistic in nature (e.g. attitudes towards language). From 1997, new linguistic research on tone, dialects, and sociolinguistics has been undertaken by Andrej Kibrik. Athough there are some originals, many of the fieldnotes are photocopies provided by the author or field researcher.
By far the largest part of the collection pertains to educational materials, most of which are elementary readers and children’s literacy exercises (ca. 50 items), produced from the 1960s to the 1970s and published by either the National Bilingual Materials Development Center in Anchorage or the Alaska State Operated Schools. Many are translations of primary readers for children developed by Yupik and Inupiaq authors, or of templates of primary readers developed by the Alaska State Operated Schools; Betty Petruska and Raymond Collins did much of the work of translation and adaptation into Upper Kuskokwim. Petruska also translated a number of traditional Deg Xinag stories. The 1980s to the present have seen less activity on language materials development; there is some student work from 1983-1984 (3 items) and some songs for teaching the language were developped in 1998.
COLLECTION ORGANIZATION:
The Upper Kuskokwim 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. A brief explanation of the call number system follows:
The call number first notes the language, Upper Kuskokwim, with the two-letter code “UK.” 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 Upper Kuskokwim 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, CP refers to Collins and Petruska.
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:
UK964C1973a reads as one of two or more items produced in 1973 by Raymond Collins who began working on the Upper Kuskokwim language in 1964. UK973PD1975 reads as an item produced in 1975 by Betty Petruska and Helen Dementoff; Petruska started working on the language in 1973.
List of Authors and Contributors
Subject List
Container List
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