Linguistic and Ethnographic Investigations of Place Names and Narratives in Two Alaska Dene Languages: Toklat (Lower Tanana) and Middle Tanana

美国国会于1990年通过的《美洲原住民语言法》承认了美洲原住民语言的独特地位和重要性。这些语言存在于大多数美国人的日常生活中，用于地名，植物，动物等等。该项目将侧重于阿拉斯加中部两种土著语言及其方言的地名。这两种语言都是所谓的“沉睡”语言，即没有流利的第一语言使用者。该项目的重点是广泛收集录音和语言及人种学笔记，并将这些材料列为转录和编辑的优先事项。重要的是，该项目还将侧重于地名，不仅是地名本身，还包括讨论地点的文化词汇和叙述，并以多种语文格式整合地理信息系统数据。用于字典文件、文本、文化词汇和地理注释的相互关联的方法将创建持久的档案记录。更广泛的影响包括地名的可获得性（对社区、地理学家和政府机构等具有重要意义）、对公立学校的宣传以及向阿拉斯加土著社区提供用于语言和文化振兴的材料。该项目的产品和数字文件将通过阿拉斯加原住民语言中心和阿拉斯加原住民语言档案馆提供。该项目将成为PI富有成效的职业生涯的顶峰，他花了近五十年的时间记录Dene语言，特别是阿拉斯加的语言，包括这项工作的重点，下塔纳纳语的托克拉特方言（Kantishna河下游的托克拉特河）和中塔纳纳语（穆斯克里克和古德帕斯特河之间的塔纳纳河）。Dene（以前的阿萨巴斯卡语）语系对语言学具有重要意义，其成员包括纳瓦霍语，阿帕契语和许多阿拉斯加语言。托克拉和中塔纳纳都有大量的叙述和民族志笔记，记录于1964年至2000年之间，包括著名的说书人贝西·巴纳布斯和伊娃·莫菲特，来自萨尔查和海丝特·埃文和西莉亚·彼得森，来自托克拉·内纳纳。增加妇女的语言将进一步丰富文献和历史记录。该项目还将特别注意塔那纳谷Dene中、下语系的地名和地名注释。两个始于20世纪90年代的中塔纳纳和下塔纳纳词典文件将被扩展，以包括共享的德纳文化词汇项目，共同的动词主题和所有语法语素。这两种语文的地名记录将分阶段与邻近的Dene语文（Ahtna、Tanacross和Koyukon）的地名目录合并。这些扩展的材料将澄清较低的塔纳纳山谷和阿拉斯加史前研究的德内语言的分类。这个多语言Dene地理数据库的测试版带有数字网络地图，将促进编辑的一致性和制图的准确性。最终（超出本项目的范围），这个可扩展的多语言阿拉斯加Dene地名地理数据库可以促进Dene地理信息与科学数据库（考古学，生态学或气候学），或语言学习，或公共教育，应用地名学（官方命名）和部落和政府实体的土地管理的集成。

The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages. These languages are present in everyday life for most Americans in the names for places, plants, animals and more. This project will focus on place names for two Central Alaska Native languages and their dialects. Both languages are what is known as 'sleeping' languages, when there are no remaining fluent first language speakers. Focusing on extensive collections of audio recordings and language and ethnographic notes, this project will prioritize these materials for transcription and editing. Importantly, the project will also include a focus on place names, not just the names themselves, but also cultural vocabulary and narratives where places are discussed and integrating Geographic Information System (GIS) data in a multilingual format. The interrelated methods employed for dictionary files, texts, cultural vocabulary, and geographic annotation will create a durable archival record. Broader impacts include the accessibility of place names (of importance for communities, geographers, and governmental agencies, among others), outreach to public schools, and materials available to Alaska Native communities for language and cultural revitalization. The products and digital files for the project will be available through the Alaska Native Language Center and the Alaska Native Language Archive.The project will serve as the capstone of a productive career for the PI, who has spent nearly five decades documenting the Dene languages, especially those of Alaska, including the focus of this work, the Toklat dialect of the Lower Tanana language (the lower Kantishna River & the Toklat River) and the Middle Tanana language (Tanana River between Moose Creek and Goodpaster River). The Dene (formerly Athabaskan) language family is of great significance to linguistics, with members including Navajo, Apache, and numerous Alaska languages. Both Toklat and Middle Tanana have extensive collections of narratives and ethnographic notes recorded between 1964 and 2000, including from well-known storytellers Bessie Barnabus and Eva Moffit, from Salcha and Hester Evan and Celia Peterson, from Toklat & Nenana. Incorporating women's language will further enrich the documentation and historical record. The project will also give special attention to geographic names and place annotations for the middle and lower Tanana Valley Dene language groups. Two dictionary files for Middle Tanana and Lower Tanana that were begun in the 1990s will be expanded to include shared Dene cultural vocabulary items, the common verb themes, and all grammatical morphemes. Place name records for the two languages will be combined in stages with place name inventories for adjacent Dene languages (Ahtna, Tanacross and Koyukon). These expanded materials will clarify the classification of the Dene languages of the lower Tanana Valley and the study of Alaska prehistory. The beta version of this multilingual Dene geodatabase with a digital webmap will foster editorial consistency and mapping accuracy. Eventually (and beyond the scope of this project), this extensible multilingual Alaska Dene place names geodatabase can facilitate the integration of Dene geographic information with scientific databases (in archaeology, ecology, or climatology), or language learning, or for public education, applied toponymy (official naming) and land management by both tribal and government entities.