U.Cal. Santa Barbara OPP-9907059
This dissertation project will prepare a grammatical description of the structure of the Tanacross verb. Tanacross, a distinctive Athabaskan language spoken by roughly 30 middle-aged or older residents of Tanacross village and its environs in eastern Alaska, has received little study. The dissertation will provide both a thorough description of the language and theoretical insights into synchronic and diachronic Athabaskan linguistics. Among the Athabaskan languages, Tanacross is of particular interest due to the evolution of a unique system of compound tones, reflecting the historical loss of verb suffixes. Only two other Alaska Athabaskan languages (Han and Upper Tanana) have been reported to have such a system, and none has been described in detail. With the exception of the Koyukon and Ahtna languages, very little work has been devoted to the description of grammatical structure in Alaska Athabaskan languages. This dissertation thus contributes to the further understanding of Athabaskan verbal morphology. Topics to be covered include verb structure, prefix template, verb stem variation, and verb theme categories. The resulting documentation will benefit both the Athabaskanist and general linguistics community as well as the continued efforts toward language revitalization within the Tanacross community itself.
