The Yinka Déné Language Institute
646 Stoney Creek Road
Vanderhoof BC V0J 3A1 Canada
250-561-5848, local 5460 (telephone)
250-561-5874 (FAX)


The Yinka Déné Language Institute is devoted to the preservation and promotion of Yinka Dene language and culture. Our activities include:


News and Announcements

Tanacross Learners' Dictionary
The Tanacross Learners' Dictionary, by Irene Solomon Arnold, Rick Thoman, and Gary Holton, s a resource for students of Tanacross, an Athabascan language spoken in eastern Alaska. The dictionary is a result of a collaboration between Native speakers, linguists, and language learners. The dictionary contains about 2000 English headwords with nearly 4500 Tanacross words and example sentences, as well as numerous examples of verb paradigms. The dictionary includes a brief introduction to Tanacross grammar, as well as a guide to the Tanacross writing system. As an additional guide to pronunciation, dictionary users can access nearly 4000 accompanying audio recordings on the Alaska Native Language Center web site. For further information, go to: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/tanacross/tld.
Ahtna Place Names Lists, 2nd edition revised, by James Kari
Ahtna is the Athabascan language of the Copper River drainage in Southcentral Alaska. First published 1983, a revised 2nd edition of Ahtna Place Names Lists is now available in a limited edition of 350 copies. With over 2200 place names in drainage-based sections within and beyond the 35,000 sq. mi. language area, Ahtna has the most comprehensive geographic name data set for any Alaska Native language.
The 33-page introduction entitled "Ahtna Athabascan Place Names as Shared Knowledge" summarizes the documentary sources on Ahtna geographic names and the core elements of Ahtna and Athabascan geographic naming. These elements-name content, name structure, name distribution and name networks-have promoted functional travel, strategic land use, shared boundaries, and multilingualism with other Athabascan groups. For Ahtna we can marvel at the strict purity, orderliness, symmetry, and functionality of the geography. This is a shared, memorized, strongly confirmed geographic system that is congruent across Athabascan language and dialect boundaries. Over 89% of the Ahtna place names are fully analyzable and an astounding 98% are fully-to-partially analyzable. Most of the place names have naturalistic structure and content, with a mix of cultural activities and metaphors, all of which facilitate memorization and efficient foot-travel through and beyond Ahtna territory. Since the Ahtna geographic system is representative of Northern Athabascan languages, the Ahtna place names network can serve as primary data for discussions on the role of geography in the prehistory of Athabascan, Na-Dene and Dene-Yeniseian. For further information go to: Alaska Native Language Center.
CILLDI 2009
The Tenth Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute will be held at the University of Alberta July 6 - July 24, 2009. Further information is available at the web site: http://www.cilldi.ualberta.ca/
Paper on Carrier Syllabics
A paper on Father Morice's Rendering of Latin in Carrier Syllabics has been published.
ALDI 2009
The 30th annual American Indian Language Development Institute will be held at the University of Arizona Monday June 8 - Thursday July 2, 2009. Further information is available at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aildi.
University of Victoria Certificate Program in Aboriginal Language Revitalization - 2009
Four courses are being offered this summer: Language Revitalization Principles and Practices and Introductory Linguistics for Language Revitalization in May and June at the En'owkin Centre in Penticton and Language Learning and Teaching in Situations of Language Loss and Field Methods for Language Preservation and Revitalization in August at the University of Victoria. Website: http://www.continuingstudies.uvic.ca/calr.
Louie Family CDs
The CD of the Louie Family Singers singing traditional Carrier songs is available again.
Northwest Journal of Linguistics
A new journal devoted to the native languages of northwestern North America has come into existence. It is published only in electronic form: http://www.sfu.ca/nwjl/.
Witsuwit'en Grammar
Sharon Hargus' book Witsuwit'en Grammar has been published by the University of British Columbia Press.

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For information about other First Nations languages of British Columbia, about the First Nations languages of British Columbia in general, and about endangered languages, language maintenance, and related topics, go to the First Nations Languages of British Columbia web site.

Nous sommes désolés de ne pas avoir tout traduit en franç;ais. Néanmoins, certains renseignments sont disponibles en français. Cet index en français.

Veuillez nous communiquer en français si vous voulez.


Revised 2009-04-26



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Yinka Dene Language Institute © 2009