Minto Songs

FAIN: HD-50298-08

University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK 99775-7500)
Siri Tuttle (Project Director: October 2007 to September 2012)

The collection, digitization, organization, and archival storage, as well as dissemination among the Minto Athabascan community, of recorded performances of Alaskan Athabascan songs.

Among the cultural objects gathered in the last century from indigenous groups in the Americas is a large amount of recorded song. Among Alaskan Athabascans, song serves as a community-internal activity that supports native language use and cultural revitalization, and also as a marker of village identity in the larger communities. The Minto Athabascan community in Alaska is the last village that has speakers of the Lower Tanana Athabascan language, and it has a very strong song tradition. We propose to organize the Minto song data available to us (Alaska Native Language Center @ UAF; Polar Regions collections at Rasmuson Library, and in the Rooth & Lundstrom collections in Sweden) and to make it usable by community members by creating web-ready multimedia pages that can be added to existing websites and controlled by the Village of Minto. Annotations for songs will be recorded with Minto elders who can identify the composers and occasions for which the songs were composed.

Associated Products

Language and Music in Minto, Alaska (Book Section)
Title: Language and Music in Minto, Alaska
Author: Tuttle, Siri G.
Editor: Håkan Lundström
Editor: Jan-Olof Svantesson
Editor: Niclas Burenhult
Editor: Arthur Holmer
Editor: Anastasia Karlsson
Abstract: Study of music and lyrics of different song types shows that the Athabascan language spoken in Minto, Alaska, differs in spoken and sung contexts. Specifically, unusual words are used, referred to as ‘high language’. Poetic and elliptical language is also found. Important words are sung first, and may be augmented with vocables to show their importance. Voice quality is used to show emotion and to keep the beat in memorial songs. Glottal stops may be unrealized. Verb stem prominence is reflected when lyrics are matched to tune, may be highlighted with high pitch or pitch change (memorial verses) When music and words conflict in pitch or duration, musical values tend to dominate. When songs are translated from English to Minto, music still dominates, along with traditional values in content.
Year: 2012
Publisher: HRELP
Book Title: Proceedings of the Humanities of the Lesser-Known, Language Documentation and Description special issue

Language and music in the songs of Minto, Alaska (Keynote) (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Language and music in the songs of Minto, Alaska (Keynote)
Author: Siri G. Tuttle
Abstract: The extreme endangerment of the Lower Tanana Athabascan language as spoken in Minto, Alaska, makes interpretation of verbal art a priority for remaining speakers. Investigation of data with elders as guides shows similarities to and differences from Athabascan music and lyrics in other parts of North America. Community-driven research in this grey area of the humanities proves fruitful for linguistic documentation.
Date: 9/10/2010
Conference Name: Humanities of the Lesser-Known, University of Lund, Sweden

Metrics and music in Minto Athabascan songs (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Metrics and music in Minto Athabascan songs
Author: Siri G. Tuttle
Abstract: Song lyrics in Minto (Lower Tanana) Athabascan show prosodic effects that differentiate between morphologically and metrically assigned stress; contra earlier analyses (Tuttle 1998, 2003) the two systems may be distinct in mental grammar.
Date: 1/7/2011
Conference Name: Society for the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas

Speech and Song: Investigating the Borderland (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Speech and Song: Investigating the Borderland
Author: Karlsson, Anastasia
Author: Håkan Lundström
Author: Jan-Olof Svantesson
Author: Siri G. Tuttle
Abstract: This article deals with language and music in two quite different languages and music cultures: that of the Kammu people in Laos and that of two Athabascan groups in Alaska. It has come out of a research project concerned with the study of vocal expressions in the borderland between speech and song, which spans over several language and music settings in societies where oral transmission of culture dominates. The aim of the project is to increase knowledge through collaboration between researchers with different approaches, to develop an interdisciplinary method for analysis of such expressions and to use this method in an intercultural study including several language and music settings. A long-term aim is also to play a part in the revitalization of such oral traditions and to contribute to their sustainability.
Date: 7/6/12
Conference Name: Workshop Relationships of Speech Tone and Music

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