1. Nänʼ chʼitsʼą̈ʼ daathäł

    Change in (the) Upper Tanana

    Olga Lovick, Alaska Native Language Center, UAF

    Dene Languages Conference, July 5, 2008

  2. Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?

    Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    • Investigate impact of Change in the Upper Tanana area
    • Collect Oral Histories on Change in
      the native language
    • Add to the linguistic documentation
      of Upper Tanana
    		 a

  3. Background

    • Upper Tanana is an Athabascan language spoken in the Upper Tanana valley
    • Traditionally spoken in Tetlin, Northway, Nabesna, Scottie Creek, and Beaver Creek
    • Now spoken by fewer than 100 speakers in Tetlin, Northway, and Beaver Creek
    • Most speakers are more than 60 years old
    • No children learn the language
    • Upper Tanana is a highly endangered language

  4. Languages of Alaska

    a

  5. Previous documentation

    • Junior Dictionary by Paul Milanowski
    • story collection by James Kari
    • some stories by Paul Milanowski
    • 2 linguistic articles + dissertation in Japanese by Nobukatsu Minoura
    • fieldnotes from other researchers
    • less than 50 tapes in ANLC holdings

  6. Changes

    • Prior to 1885: Virtually no contact
    • 1885: Allen expedition
    • 1913: Chisana goldrush
    • 1940's: Alaska Highway, Northway airport, wage labor
    • up to today: TV, telephone, internet...
    • pollution, climate change, 2002 earthquake

  7. What seems to be the problem here?

  8. Methods 1: Language documentation

    Any token of language is valuable

    • wordlists
    • paradigms
    • sentences
    • texts and conversations

  9. Methods 1: Language documentation

    a
    • Make audio and video recordings
    • Transcribe and translate
    • Rule of thumb: Analysis of 1 minute of language data takes at least 1 hour

  11. Methods 2: Climate research

    • interview Elders about changes they have observed
    • collection of topical vocabulary
    • perform linguistic analysis
    • ask Elders to translate words into their language
    • talk about Native place names

  12. Interview about changes

    June 19, 2007. Interview with Mrs. Avis Sam, Northway  

    a   It's too hot, and the fur-bearing animals too, I notice.
    I caught some fox, I trap too sometimes.
    Anyway, I caught three foxes
    and their fur is not as fluffy and as good as they used to be, they are rough.
    The top hair, it's rough. It's like it's worn out.
    There's no snow. The animals, they grow hair loooong and fluffy when it's cold.
    To keep them warm. When it's warm, they don't.

  13. Topical vocabulary: Ice

    tänh   'ice (on water)'
    łuut   'ice (as glacier, icicle)'
    noołuut   'freeze-up, falltime
    chʼinłuut   'hail'
    łuut chʼidonh   'hollow ice'
    chʼinsüü   'ice floes'
    chʼinsüü neltänh   'ice floes are frozen solid'
    giat   'overflow'
    tänh shyuuł   'rotten ice'

  14. Topical vocabulary: Snow

    shyüh 'snow'
    ehshyüh 'it's snowing'
    chidn 'top snow'
    shyüh thay 'snow - sand, bottom snow'
    shyüh tu' 'snow water'
    lidzee 'melting snow'
    tsiił 'snow drift'
    chʼetnetgaayh 'very fine, icy snow is falling'
    shyü kaatlʼügn 'black bugs on top of snow'

  15. Topical vocabulary: Melting and breaking

    taakʼüt 'water that doesn't freeze (in water hole)'
    mänh maagn tachʼudaałät 'it's thawing around the lake'
    tänh naʼakxįį; 'I'm melting ice (for drinking water)'
    tänh eltał 'pressure cracks in ice'
    łatnalxooł '(ice) is breaking up (in springtime)'

  16. Linguistic Analysis

    (1a) tsaał 'Chinook wind (unanalyzable)
    (1b) dełkʼüüdn 'North wind' (deverbal noun)

    Analysis of (1b):

    (2a) hu- nee- Ø- kʼät  
      Areal- Qual/Cnj- Clf- be.cold:Ipf  
      'it (an area) is cold'
    (2b)   de- ł küüt -e
        Qual/Cnj- Clf- be.cold:Fut -Nom
      'that which causes cold'

  17. New words

    (3) Nänʼ chʼitsʼą̈ą̈ʼ daathäł
      earth over it warm weather
      'global warming'
    (4) Nänʼ titaʼaltsiil niʼi
      land it is changing looks like
      'climate change'

  18. Place names

    • James Kari collected > 900 place names for the UT language area
    • place names are very descriptive:
      • łuugn männ' 'fish lake'
      • dzänh männ' 'muskrat lake'
      • dzänh männ' niign 'creek flowing out from muskrat lake'
    • Because place names are very stable over time, they can tell us how the land used to be

  20. Satellite image of Northway, 1999-2001

    a

  21. Satellite image of Northway, August 2003

    a

  22. Plans for the future

    • continue interviews and language documentation of the Upper Tanana language
    • collect topical vocabulary, e.g. Bird Book
    • CLIP workshop in August
    • start at First Nations University of Canada, start working on Dëne Sułiné
    • I'm open to other ideas! Always interested in interdisciplinary collaboration

  23. Acknowledgements

    • Mrs. Cora David, Mrs. Avis Sam, Mrs. Martha Sam, Mr. Harry Frank, Mr. Oscar Jimmie, Mr. Julius Sam, Mr. Roy Sam
    • Isabel Núñez, James Kari, Joe Lovick, Siri Tuttle