Gary HoltonANLC
E-MELD WorkshopAugust 2002
Alaska Native Language Archive
E-MELD August 2002
Alaska Native Language Center
E-MELD August 2002
Alaska Native Language Center Established in 1972 by state legislation
as a center for documentation and cultivation of the state's 20 Native languages
Staff includes language teachers, linguists, and language specialists
Archiving is central to both the documentation and pedagogical missions
E-MELD August 2002
Alaska Native Languages Eskimo-Aleut (5) Athabascan-Eyak-
Tlingit (13) Haida (1) Tsimshian (1)
E-MELD August 2002
Endangerment Status
Numbers of speakers Central Yup'ik 10,000 Inupiaq 3100
(+71,500 in Canada and Kalaallisut) Eyak 1
Age of youngest speaker <2 (Siberian Yupik) >80 (Holikachuk, Deg Xinag, Haida, Eyak ... )
E-MELD August 2002
Documentation Status comprehensive published dictionaries for
4 of the 20 languages grammars for 3 languages dissertations on 5 other languages
E-MELD August 2002
Alaska Native Language Archive Primary linguistic data archive for the 20
Alaska Native languages Comprehensive -- nearly everything
written in or about Alaska Native langs Primary focus on unpublished manuscripts
and field notes Items include:
print (~10,000 items), audio (~4700 tapes), digital data (??)
E-MELD August 2002
Archive Mission preservation
long-term storage and maintenance digital archiving of print and audio materials
access controlled but straighforward access by
community members educators linguists
E-MELD August 2002
Community-driven primary users of archive are members of
Native language communities communities also taking a lead in
preservation and access projects Eyak Language Digitization Project Unangan Tape Archive
E-MELD August 2002
Types of linguistic data field notes texts manuscripts pedagogical materials lexica
comparative wordlists etymological wordlists placenames
E-MELD August 2002
Formats Historically a non-digital (paper and tape)
archive, but increasingly have to deal with digital formats image files (pdf) raw text files word processor database (FoxPro, Access) audio (wav, aif)
E-MELD August 2002
Goals map archive metadata and expose via
OLAC-compliant data provider done
digitize existing resources in progress
create framework for archiving new digital data go E-MELD!
E-MELD August 2002
Digital Lexical Data at ANLC unstructured text files (Eyak, Inupiaq) structured text files
Lexware (Koyukon) Shoebox (Tanacross, Holikachuk) other "standard format" (Alutiiq)
relational databases Access (Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit
Comparative Lexical Database)
E-MELD August 2002
Two Examples Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit Comparative
Lexical Database (AET-CLD)
E-MELD August 2002
Koyukon Athabascan Dictionary Eliza Jones & Jules Jetté,
ed. by James Kari stored as structure text file, formatted
using Bob Hsu's Lexware project began ca. 1979 (1898)
printed dictionary published 2000 electronic version in progress ...
E-MELD August 2002
Athabascan Morphology almost exclusively prefixing form of stem varies with TAM stem best represented by abstract lemma
or "root" lexeme consists of root plus one or more
(possibly discontinuous) prefixes
.rt ts'eyh$1pa ch$w'-tag wind blows..th (P+pp#)de+0+ts'eyh
ex hedeets'eyheng it is windy
(blowing on the area)...n bet'o deets'eye...n mek'oodaats'eeye
..th P+pp#(#)de+\+ts'eyh
..th P+pp#(#)de+0+ts'eyh
..th P+e#k'e+de+\+ts'eyh
..th 0+ts'eyh
...an menedaa\ts'eeye
..n,i e\ts'eeyh, -e\ts'eeye'...n E\ts'eeyh Zo'@...n k'ets'e e\ts'eeye...n e\ts'eeyh yeege'...n e\ts'eeyh doyeege'....n e\ts'eebaaye
Root
Subentry
Sub-subentry
Example
E-MELD August 2002
AET-CLD Jeff Leer, Giulia Oliverio, & Gary Holton project begun ca. 1997 comparative data at level of:
lexeme morpheme phoneme
hierarchical interactive, dynamic database
E-MELD August 2002
AET-CLD Structure
Cogset
Lex
Morph
Phone
Database structure (portion)
Cogset table
Lex table
Morph table (1)
Morph table (2)
...to obtain a copy of the AET-CLD Access database, please contact [email protected]
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