Athabaskan Personal Histories of Climate Change in Alaska and Canada

作为国际极地年的一部分，与个人叙事，特别是与濒危语言相关的文化史，将由华盛顿大学的莎伦·哈格斯博士领导的一个项目记录下来。极地地区气候变化的国际影响，将从本地和个人的角度来看，将引出并提供给广泛的受众。该文件涉及三种北部阿萨巴斯坎语言，tek 'ene和Witsuwit'en（都在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省使用）和Deg Xinag（在阿拉斯加使用）。在比较阿萨巴斯坎语法的某些主题，有关史前人口流动的模式，也将进行调查。语调将在三种语言中进行调查，以检查其与词汇语调的相互作用。Tsek'ene是一种声调语言，而Witsuwit'en和Deg ' singh则不是。其他各种语法类别将探讨在三种语言之间的指导性差异。土著对极地气候变化的看法可能在土著语言中得到了最充分的体现。这个项目提供了一个难得的机会来收集过去80年来加拿大和阿拉斯加部分地区气候变化的第一手资料。语言数据将有助于将语言分配到阿萨巴斯坎语言的适当亚组，表明它们在阿萨巴斯坎家族中具有相当不同的语法和词汇结构。通过对这三种语言的比较，我们可以了解阿萨巴斯坎语的共同之处，以及它们的祖先在何时（可能在何处）分化。为了帮助制作纪录片，每个社区将花一些时间进行扫盲培训，以便当地的讲者和/或学习者能够帮助抄写或翻译文本的某些方面。因此，该项目的一个附带结果可能是更多地调动当地资源以编制语言文件。

As part of the International Polar Year, the cultural history that is tied up in personal narratives, particularly as bound up in threatened languages, will be recorded in a project headed by Dr. Sharon Hargus, University of Washington. The international effects of climate change in the polar regions, as seen through a Native and personal lens, will be elicited and made available to a wide audience. The documentation concerns three northern Athabaskan languages, Tsek'ene and Witsuwit'en (both spoken in British Columbia, Canada) and Deg Xinag (spoken in Alaska). Certain topics in comparative Athabaskan grammar, relevant to patterns of prehistoric population movements, will also be investigated. Intonation will be investigated in each of the three languages, to examine its interactions with lexical tone. Tsek'ene is a tone language, where Witsuwit'en and Deg Xinag are not. Various other grammatical categories will be explored for instructive differences across the three langauages. The Native perspective on polar climate change is likely to be most fully represented in the native language. This project provides a rare opportunity to collect first-hand accounts of climate change over the past 80 years in sections of Canada and Alaska. The language data will help assign the languages to the proper subgrouping of Athabaskan languages, indicative of their rather different grammatical and lexical structures within the Athabaskan family. The comparison of the three languages should provide a window into what Athabaskan languages have in common and when (and possibly where) their ancestors may have diverged. To help with the documentary effort, some time in each community will be devoted to literacy training so that local speakers and/or learners may be able to help with some aspect of text transcription or translation. Thus, one side result of the project may be greater mobilization of local resources for language documentation.