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Anthony C. Woodbury papers, 1978
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Woodbury, Anthony C.
- Title
- Anthony C. Woodbury papers
- Dates
- 1978 (inclusive)19781978
- Quantity
- 0.21 linear feet (7 sound cassettes, 9 microfiches)
- Collection Number
- 2696-020 (Accession No. 2696-020-01)
- Summary
- Linguistic field notes and recorded texts of Chevak, a dialect of Central Alaskan Yup'ik
- Repository
-
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu - Access Restrictions
Open to all users. Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
- Languages
- English
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Anthony C. Woodbury is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Jesse H. Jones Regents Professorship in Liberal Arts. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics in 1975 from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1981 from the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on the indigenous languages of the Americas, and how they reveal contemporary as well as historic linguistic diversity and creativity on the parts of their speakers. He began working with Yupik-Inuit-Unangan (Eskimo-Aleut) languages in 1974, eventually focusing on Cup’ik in Chevak, Alaska. In 2003 he became engaged in the documentation and description of Chatino, an Otomanguean language group of Oaxaca, Mexico. Themes in his writing have included tone and prosody; morphology, syntax, and historical linguistics; ethnopoetics and speech play and verbal art; and language documentation, revitalization, and the role of linguistics in the struggle for human rights and intellectual justice, especially under conditions of language shift that is directly or indirectly coerced.
[Information adapted from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin; web. Date Accessed: 05/22/2023]
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
Linguistic field notes and audio cassette recordings containing texts of Chevak, a dialect of Central Alaskan Yup'ik. Anthony C. Woodbury visited the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and Chevak to conduct linguistic fieldwork on the Chevak dialect of Central Alaskan Yup’ik. Goals of his field work were to establish a working relationship with members of the community and collect a corpus of linguistic data for analysis and transcription (with the assistance of a native speaker of the Chevak dialect).
Historical BackgroundReturn to Top
Central Alaskan Yup'ik is the largest of the state's Native languages, both in the size of its population and the number of speakers. Of a total population of about 21,000 people, about 10,000 are speakers of the language. Children still grow up speaking Yup'ik as their first language in 17 of 68 Yup'ik villages, those mainly located on the lower Kuskokwim River, on Nelson Island, and along the coast between the Kuskokwim River and Nelson Island. The main dialect is General Central Yup'ik, and the other four dialects are Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, Nunivak, and Egegik.
Central Alaskan Yup'ik lies geographically and linguistically between Alutiiq and Siberian Yupik. The word Yup'ik represents not only the language but also the name for the people themselves yuk 'person' plus pik 'real'. In Chevak the language is referred to as Cup'ik, and in Nunivak as Cup'ig, words that are also used in place of Yup'ik to denote a person of this group.
Early linguistic work in Central Yup'ik was done primarily by Russian Orthodox, then Jesuit Catholic and Moravian missionaries, leading to a tradition of literacy used in letter writing. In the 1960s, Irene Reed and others at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks developed a modern writing system for the language, and their work led to the establishment of the state's first school bilingual programs in four Yup'ik villages in the early 1970s. Since then a wide variety of bilingual materials has been published, as well as Steven Jacobson's comprehensive dictionary of the language and his complete practical classroom grammar, and story collections and narratives by many others, including a novel by Anna Jacobson.
[Information adapted from the “Central Yup'ik” page of the Alaska Native Language Center website. University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Date Accessed: 05/22/2023]
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box/Folder | |||
| 1/1 | Report on Linguistic Fieldtrip to Chevak,
Alaska Contains information about fieldtrip itinerary and dates;
accomplishments of fieldwork; preliminary results; table of contents referring
to cassettes and notebooks; and future plans for project
|
1978 | |
| Box | item | ||
| 1 | Tape 1 | Mary Kokrak and Gregory Teve 1 audio cassette
True story from the Yukon Wars narrated by Mary Mokrak [Side A],
Ghost Story: Return of woman who died in childbirth, and of the child who was
buried with her, narrated by Gregory Teve [Side B]
|
1977, October, 17, 1978 |
| 1 | Tape 2 | Mary Chimiralrea, Rose Imgalrea, Tom Imgalrea, and Jacob
Nash 1 audio cassette
Three tales narrated by M. Chimiralrea [Side A], Accounts of old
life ways narrated by R. Imgalrea, T. Imgalrea, and J. Nash [Side B], and a
true story about a man who defied a shaman narrated by J. Nash [Side B]
|
October 19, 1978, November 13, 1978 |
| 1 | Tape 3 | Leo Moses 1 audio cassette
Two stories, followed by English versions: "How the loon got his
colors" and "Orphan Story" (with song) [Side A]; "Two true stories from my
grandfather" [Side B]; Narrated by L. Moses
|
November 8, 1978, November 16, 1978 |
| 1 | Tape 4 | Thomas Moses 1 audio cassette
Three true stories, and two tales narrated by T. Moses [Side A];
recording from 1:15-2:05 pm of activities in Chevak's Qaygig ("Kashim");
conversation and storytelling [Side B]
|
November 9, 1978, November 26, 1978 |
| 1 | Tape 5 | Chevak's Qaygig 1 audio cassette
Recording from 2:05=3:35 pm of activities in Chevak's Qaygig
("Kashim"); conversation and storytelling
|
November 26, 1978 |
| 1 | Tape 6 | Chevak's Qaygig 1 audio cassette
Recording from 3:35-3:45 pm, and 4:30-5:30 pm of activities in
Chevak's Qaygig ("Kashim"); period between 3:45-4:30 pm occupied by daily
"firebath"; conversation and storytelling
|
November 26, 1978 |
| 1 | Tape 7 | Chevak's Qaygig 1 audio cassette
Recording from 3:30-4:45 pm in Chevak's Qaygig ("Kashim");
conversation and storytelling
|
November 28, 1978 |
| 1 | Book A | Fieldnotes: Fairbanks, Chevak 3 microfiche
|
1978 |
| 1 | Book B | Fieldnotes: Chevak 3 microfiche
|
1978 |
| 1 | Book C | Fieldnotes: Chevak 3 microfiche
|
1978 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)
Other Creators
-
Personal Names
- Woodbury, Anthony C (creator)
Corporate Names
- Jacobs Research Fund (creator)
