Research Articles

Language and music in the songs of Minto, Alaska

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Abstract

The community of Minto lies about 130 miles northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Athabascan language spoken in Minto is the last dialect surviving of the language known as Tanana or Lower Tanana. It is extremely endangered, with no native speakers under the age of 70, and fluent elders passing on. The elder leaders in Minto decided that songs should be studied. Several generations of Minto elders have participated in sharing their culture with formal researchers in many disciplines. They have also supported religious and secular community organizers, language learners, and interested visitors. The project reported on here (NEH HD-50298-08, Minto songs) set out to integrate archived Minto music present in the ANLC Archive and other archives with information from elders and other sources. The activities in this project included archival organization, workshops, linguistic/musical sessions and transcription. A student technician spent the period of the project listening to 44 Minto recordings in the Alaska Native Language Center in real time, defining points of transition within them, and marking the presence of music. These recordings were presented to the elders and discussed with them, at workshops in Minto and Fairbanks and in smaller sessions, mainly held at the researcher’s or elders’ houses...

Keywords: Minto, Alaska, Athabascan language, Tanana, Menhti kenaga’, Minto Songs project, language revitalization, endangered languages, music shift

How to Cite:

Tuttle, S., (2011) “Language and music in the songs of Minto, Alaska”, Language Documentation and Description 10, 82-112. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd191