What is a year?

• a solar year (365.24 days long)?
• a lunar year (~354 days long)?
• a lunisolar year (lunar year plus intercalendary months to match it up with the solar year)
• or?

What is a month?

• one lunation (lunar phase, ~29.53 days)
• the twelfth part of a solar year (~30.42 days)
• or?

When we look at month names in Alaska, we see that

• they are non-astronomical
• they reflect a different way of thinking about the year:

A year is

• a cycle of typical recurring events
• the "months" reflect the order of the events

What kinds of events? Ex. Holikachuk

(January)	Mininh k’its’itghitl	month of mask dance
(February)	Mininh Sinoy	month we move camp
(March)	Q’ilq’iy zo’	hawk month
(April)	Mininh Nak’int’ugh	month birds return
(May)	Mininh Tats’eyts’ilay	month when ice moves
(June)	Mininh Xiniłyaxiy	month of growth
(July)	Mininh k’ilagh	dog salmon month
(August)	Nadathiq’iz Mininh	red salmon month
(September)	Mininh k’it’onh Deq’oy	leaves turn red month
(October)	Mininh xiq’udh	cold month
(November)	Łoog Dood Mininh	when eels run
(December)	Xuy Tth’exinedz	midwinter

Athabascan Languages in Alaska:

(line drawing after ANLC map 1982)

Data

• collected from materials in the ANLC Archive, see references
• for every language, there is at least one set of month names

And I found that

• nearly every village has a different set of month names
• but still, the similarities across Alaska are enormous
• there are not always 12 months: sometimes less, sometimes more
• there are three words for "month"
• most languages use all three words

Different words for "month"

• occurring in all languages: a noun meaning "sun". Ex. Upper Tanana: ch'ishaan saa "eagle sun = Eagle Month" (February)
• occurring in all languages: a postposition meaning "in the time of". Ex. Lower Tanana: Benenh Ch’edegoyi "in the time of babies = May
• occurring in many languages: a noun meaning "eye" Jetté (1909). Ex. Koyukon: Noolaaghe noghe’ "silver salmon -- eye = Silver Salmon Month (August)

Different words for "month"

• Jetté (1909) notes that in Koyukon, zo’ʉ and noghe’ are nearly always interchangeable
• "eye" generally occurs between March and September
• languages differ in their choice of these three; e.g. Deg Xinag does not use "sun", Upper Tanana does not use "eye"

"Eye" for "month"

Dena’ina (Kari 2006, Tenenbaum 1978)

• nu’u/ni’u/n’u ‘month’
• nagha ‘eye’
• naq’a ‘eye socket’
• nu’u- ‘eye (incorporated form)’
  nu’unshchet ‘he wiped his eyes’
• shnagh ‘out of my sight’
• shnaq’a ‘in my eye’
• shnu’u ‘in my eye’
•  
• But how is a month like an eye?

Special case: Han

(January)	Sraa choo nän	Big sun month
(February)	ch’ëts’ik zranän	?the month of illness?
(March)	Jëjeh zranän	? month
(April)	Ch’ëtthah zranän	hawk month
(May)	Łąyy zranän	month when dogs bark
(June)	Ch’ëghörr’ zranän	egg month
(July)	Łuu zranän	salmon month
(August)	Theyy zranän	dog salmon month
(September)	Jëjuu zranän	moose month
(October)	Ninchuun zranän	bull moose month
(November)	Jëbee zranän	sheep month
(December)	Sraa tsäww nän	?little sun? month

"Hawk month"

"Hawk month"

January and December

Language	December	January
Deg Xinag	midwinter, trapping	drum dance
Holikachuk	midwinter	mask dance
Upper Kuskokwim	kwaheyetuts’eshts’inaye	nots’inye
Koyukon	sun underwater	gather, solstice, split sun
Dena’ina	solstice	midwinter/getting light
Ahtna	solstice	fifth month
Lower Tanana	sun underwater	split sun
Tanacross	hook fishing	split moon
Upper Tanana	big sun	split moon
Han (Eagle)	little sun	big sun
Han (Dawson)	Christmas	New Year's
Gwich’in (AK)	low on food	the eldest one
Gwich’in (YT)	jideendoo ts’an	hard to get over

"Underwater sun"

source: http://www.eh2r.com/

Fish runs

• fish is a staple food in many parts of Alaska
• this is reflected by the many fish-related month names
• Deg Xinag and Holikachuk both have a "Eel run month" in November
• Ahtna has a "trout month" around May
• but of course, most important is the salmon, and there are many salmon-related month names

Fish runs

Fish runs

Fish runs

Implications for climate research

• climate research needs to be based on dates
• thus, weather records as those kept by Jetté are of interest to climate research
• month names per se are not, because they are not fixed in time
• "dog salmon month" in Upper Kuskokwim does not begin on July 1 and last until July 31 -- instead, it begins with the dog salmon run and ends with the silver salmon run (silver salmon month comes next)
• however, if researchers in different decades record the same name for different months, this may indicate a change in conditions
• generally, month names do reflect different microclimates

Acknowledgments

• John Ritter (Gwich’in, Han), Kathy Sikorski (Gwich’in), Sharon Hargus (Deg Xinag), Siri Tuttle (Lower Tanana), Willem de Reuse (Han) for data, translations, and discussion
• Cora and Roy David, Avis and Roy Sam for Upper Tanana
• ... and everyone else that compiled a list of months (ideally, with translations and comments!)

References

• Collins, Raymond L. and Betty Petruska. 1979. Dinak’i (Our Words): Upper Kuskokwim Junior Dictionary. Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center.
• Jetté, Julius. 1909. Time Reckoning of the Ten’a.
• Jetté, Julius and Eliza Jones. 2000. Koyukon Stem Dictionary. Fairbanks, ANLC.
• Kari, James. 1978. Deg Xinag Inglalik Noun Dictionary. Fairbanks: ANLC.
• Kari, James. 1990. Ahtna Stem Dictionary. Fairbanks: ANLC.
• Kari, James. 1992. Tanacross Month List, Letter to Diane Titus, Sept. 9, 1992. Ms. in ANLCA, TC 981 K 1992b.
• Kari, James. 2006. Dena’ina Topical Dictionary. Fairbanks: ANLC.

References

• Kari, James, et al. 1978. Holikachuk Noun Dictionary (preliminary). Fairbanks: ANLC.
• Maillelle, Rose. 1981. Holikachuk Calendar 1981. Prepared by the Bilingual class students of Grayling High School.
• Osgood, Cornelius. 1971. The Han Indians. A compilation of ethnographic and historical data on the Alaska-Yukon boundary area. Yale University Publications in Anthropology Number 74. New Haven: Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
• deReuse, Willem. 2007. Han month list in Notebook #14, pp. 8f.
• Ritter, John. 1976. Gwich’in (Loucheux) Noun Dictionary, McPherson dialect.
• Ritter, John and Louise Paul. 1980. Han Dictionary (Draft). Ms. in ANLCA, HN 976 RP 1980b.