More than thirty languages are spoken by the native people of British Columbia.
This site provides information about these languages, much of it in the form of
bibliographic information and links to other sites containing more detailed information
on particular languages and other relevant topics.
Virtually all of the native languages of British Columbia are endangered: hardly any
are spoken by children, and many have very few speakers at all. We therefore provide
information on the current status of the languages and of documentation for them,
as well as pointers to information on language endangerment and language maintenance and
revitalization.
Announcements
Tanacross Learners' Dictionary
The Tanacross Learners' Dictionary, by Irene Solomon Arnold, Rick Thoman, and
Gary Holton, s a resource for students of Tanacross,
an Athabascan language spoken in eastern Alaska. The dictionary is a result
of a collaboration between Native speakers, linguists, and language
learners. The dictionary contains about 2000 English headwords with nearly
4500 Tanacross words and example sentences, as well as numerous examples of
verb paradigms. The dictionary includes a brief introduction to Tanacross
grammar, as well as a guide to the Tanacross writing system. As an
additional guide to pronunciation, dictionary users can access nearly 4000
accompanying audio recordings on the Alaska Native Language Center web site.
For further information, go to:
http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/tanacross/tld.
Ahtna Place Names Lists, 2nd edition revised, by James Kari
Ahtna is the Athabascan language of the Copper River drainage in
Southcentral Alaska. First published 1983, a revised 2nd edition of Ahtna
Place Names Lists is now available in a limited edition of 350 copies. With
over 2200 place names in drainage-based sections within and beyond the
35,000 sq. mi. language area, Ahtna has the most comprehensive geographic
name data set for any Alaska Native language.
The 33-page introduction entitled "Ahtna Athabascan Place Names as Shared
Knowledge" summarizes the documentary sources on Ahtna geographic names and
the core elements of Ahtna and Athabascan geographic naming. These
elements-name content, name structure, name distribution and name
networks-have promoted functional travel, strategic land use, shared
boundaries, and multilingualism with other Athabascan groups. For Ahtna we
can marvel at the strict purity, orderliness, symmetry, and functionality
of the geography. This is a shared, memorized, strongly confirmed
geographic system that is congruent across Athabascan language and dialect
boundaries. Over 89% of the Ahtna place names are fully analyzable and an
astounding 98% are fully-to-partially analyzable. Most of the place names
have naturalistic structure and content, with a mix of cultural activities
and metaphors, all of which facilitate memorization and efficient
foot-travel through and beyond Ahtna territory. Since the Ahtna geographic
system is representative of Northern Athabascan languages, the Ahtna place
names network can serve as primary data for discussions on the role of
geography in the prehistory of Athabascan, Na-Dene and Dene-Yeniseian.
For further information go to: Alaska Native Language Center.
CILLDI 2009
The Tenth Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute will be
held at the University of Alberta July 6 - July 24, 2009.
Further information is available at the web site:
http://www.cilldi.ualberta.ca/
ALDI 2009
The 30th annual American Indian Language Development Institute will be held at the
University of Arizona Monday June 8 - Thursday July 2, 2009.
Further information is available at
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aildi.
University of Victoria Certificate Program in Aboriginal Language Revitalization
Four courses are being offered this summer:
Language Revitalization Principles and Practices and
Introductory Linguistics for Language Revitalization in May and June
at the En'owkin Centre in Penticton and
Language Learning and Teaching in Situations of Language Loss
and
Field Methods for Language Preservation and Revitalization
in August at the University of Victoria. More detailed information
is here.
Louie Family CDs
The CD of the Louie Family Singers singing traditional Carrier songs
is available again.
Northwest Journal of Linguistics
A new journal devoted to the native languages of northwestern North America has
come into existence. It is published only in electronic form:
http://www.sfu.ca/nwjl/.
This site is maintained by the Yinka Déné Language Institute (YDLI). Information provided by
other sources is credited on the relevant page. The YDLI web site
contains information about YDLI and its activities and about the Athabaskan
languages with which YDLI deals, especially Dakelh (Carrier).
Revised 2009-04-26
Please send comments and questions about this site to: webmaster@ydli.org