The researchers intend to develop a database organizing sentence data from three highly endangered Alaskan Athabascan languages: Koyukon, Lower Tanana, and Upper Tanana. Much of the data is already available in published and manuscript dictionaries, or in texts and language learning materials, but it is not currently accessible to researchers and language teachers in readily comparable form. Additional data will be collected as part of this project to fill gaps and to enrich and clarify what has been previously archived.
The database will organize the data from two perspectives: form-to-function and function-to-form. In selecting the constructions/forms to be included, we will consult a number of grammars of other Athabascan languages such as Rice (1989) and de Reuse and Goode (2006). In the selection of functions to be included, we will use extant tools such as the World Atlas on Language Structures (Dryer & Haspelmath 2011) and the GOLD ontology (Farrar & Langedoen 2003) to build our categories. Examples of search terms on the formal side are independent pronouns, classifiers, interrogative particles, or extra-high tone (to name but a few); on the functional side commands (both positive and negative), questions, topicalization, and many more.
Searching by form will be useful to researchers familiar with Athabascan languages; searching by function to researchers interested in typological questions. Additionally, this tool will be a helpful resource for Athabascan language learners and educators, who need references for curriculum development.
