PD-266988-19 | Preservation and Access: Documenting Endangered Languages - Preservation | University of Alaska, Fairbanks | Language Documentation, Description, and Maintenance Activities for Sugpiaq (ISO 639-3) in Nanwalek | 7/1/2019 - 9/30/2023 | $284,428.00 | Anna | Mary Sophia | Berge | | | | University of Alaska, Fairbanks | Fairbanks | AK | 99775-7500 | USA | 2019 | | Documenting Endangered Languages - Preservation | Preservation and Access | 284428 | 0 | 284428 | 0 | Documentation and description of Sugpiaq, a
highly endangered Yupik language spoken on the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island,
and the Kenai Peninsula. The project would result in documentation of the
language and would include collaboration with local teachers in the creation of
language-learning materials.
Sugpiaq (ems)
is a highly endangered Yupik language (of the Eskimo-Aleut language family) traditionally
spoken on the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, and on the Kenai Peninsula in
the lower Cook Inlet region. It consists of several distinct dialects,
including Alaska Peninsula Alutiiq, Kodiak Alutiik, Kenai Sugpiaq, and Chugach.
While documentation of its closest
relative -- Central Alaskan Yup'ik -- has been comparatively extensive, little
systematic work has been done on Sugpiaq, and many assumptions about the
language are based on our understanding of its relative, Central Alaskan
Yu’pik. While there has been some documentation of Sugpiaq, it is unpublished,
and as a result, study of Sugpiaq is disadvantaged in a number of important
ways, including the community's ability to maintain or revitalize the language.
This project addresses these problems in the following ways: two summers of
fieldwork will focus on the documentation of Sugpiaq syntax. The results of
fieldwork will inform: a) a description of syntactic aspects of contemporary
spoken Sugpiaq, b) an investigation of prehistoric contact between the Sugpiat
and the Unangan (a.k.a. Aleut) and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit language groups, and
c) a collaboration with local language teachers in the production of language
learning materials for the language maintenance and revitalization programs.
The latter involves regular discussions on methods of adapting the results of fieldwork
to language lessons and training in elicitation techniques to expand these
lessons. |