Wednesday, September 28, 2011

North Slope Iñupiaq Dictionary now available

After decades of work a near-final draft of North Slope Iñupiaq to English Dictionary (Iñupiatun Uqaluit Taniktun Sivunniuġutiŋit) is now available in the archive. The dictionary was compiled by Edna Ahgeak Maclean. Completion of the project was supported by the National Science Foundation International Polar Year Project Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages, PI Michael Krauss.

ANLA Item IN(N)971M2011

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Andrew Balluta remembered in radio story

Andrew Balluta at the 2005 Dena'ina
Language Institute (photo: Gary Holton)
An Alaska Public Radio story last week by Lori Townsend remembers Dena'ina speaker Andrew Balluta. We have added the recording to the archive, item TI960B2011.

A complete transcript of the story is available at the Alaska News Nightly site.

You can also read a recent post about Andrew on TalkingAlaska.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Disk space quota exceeded

This morning we received notification that our server disk space quota has been exceeded. As a result we will no longer be able to upload digital files for direct access. Files already uploaded will remain in place for the time being. If you require access to other documents which are not currently online, contact the Archive so that we can arrange for alternate distribution.

Please bear with us as we work to address this situation.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Yukon Flats School District visits archive

Paul Williams, Jr., William Tritt, Sr., and Allan Hayton review
photographs at Rasmuson Library APR
On Sept 14 Gwich'in language teachers from the Yukon Flats School District visited ANLA to locate language resources. Thanks to the efforts of Ed Alexander and the team ANLA will now be able to make available more than 337 archival recordings and numerous documents which the district can then distribute via its new "Dropbox" system.

Some of the participants followed up the ANLA visit with a trip to the Alaska and Polar Regions collection to view historical photographs.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Byron Mallot Lecture Sept 13

Byron Mallot will present a public lecture on September 13 at 4PM in the Carol Brown Ballroom at the Wood Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. A reception will follow. The lecture will also be available via live webstream at www.alaskalivestream.com.

Byron Mallott, founding President of the First Alaskans Institute, has been active for more than 40 years in the public and private sectors in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and nationally. Mr. Mallott will share his reflections on the impact of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act on Alaska since it was passed in 1971.

For more information, please visit http://ancsa.community.uaf.edu/ or call 1-888-574-6528. Please feel free to share this message with your contacts.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Ida Hildebrand visits archive

Ida Hildebrand of Chugach Regional Resources Commission visited the archive Sept 7-9 to look for material documenting traditional resource use in the Prince William Sound region. Ida worked with archive assistant Wendy Camber to sort through numerous boxes of materials from the collection of Irene Reed. Irene Reed worked on Chugach Alutiiq in the early 1960's and many of the materials she collected have yet to be inventoried or cataloged. This week ANLA will work on cataloging and scanning these materials so that they will be available for download.

Michael Krauss discusses Irene Reed's work with Ida Hildebrand

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

ANLA Student Positions Fall 2011

ANLA is hiring is hiring undergraduate student assistants for Fall 2011. Apply the the CLA Pool Position (PCN924707). Be sure to mention in your application that you are interested in working for the Alaska Native Language Archive. For more information contact the Archive Director or visit us at the Job and Research Fair, Sept 7-8.

Recent publication on comparative Eskimo-Aleut

Michael Krauss brought my attention to a recent paper on comparative Eskimo-Aleut by José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Alaskans may not be familiar with the work of this Spanish scholar, who has been making an important contribution to Eskimo-Aleut linguistics. The paper is entitled Proto-Eskimo-Aleut */ə/ and the Origin of Aleut Pre-Aspirated Consonants. The abstract follows:
    The aim of this paper is to analyze several points of the Aleut historical phonology which up till now had not received enough attention. The programmed agenda comprises: (I) Proto-Eskimo-Aleut */ə/; (II) the pre-aspiration; (III) the Proto-Eskimo-Aleut sequences */-nə-/ and */-ŋə-/, and (IV) Aleut lexicon containing x̣- (γ.-). An ideal understanding of these processes shall help to the reconstruction of the Proto-Aleut language, an issue totally rejected in the specialized literature.
The paper is published in Revista Española de Antropología Americana (40.1, 2010) and can  be downloaded here.