Koyukon language

Jules Jetté, a French Canadian Jesuit missionary, began recording the language and culture of the Koyukon people in 1898. Considered a fluent Koyukon speaker after spending years in the region, Jetté died in 1927. He had made a significant quantity of notes on the Koyukon people, their culture and beliefs, and their language.

Eliza Jones, a Koyukon, came across these manuscripts while studying, and later working, at the University of Alaska in the early 1970s. Working from Jetté's notes and in consultation with Koyukon tribal elders, Jones wrote the Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary. It was edited by James Kari and published in 2000 by the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary is unusually comprehensive in terms of documentation of an American indigenous language, in part because Jetté's notes were of excellent quality and depth. In addition, he wrote about the language and culture nearly a century ago, when the language was far more widely spoken in daily life and the Koyukon people were living in a more traditional way. The use of the word, "Dictionary", in the title is perhaps misleading; the book is more similar to an encyclopedia, as it also is a record of the culture and traditions of the Koyukon people.

The book includes traditional stories recorded by Catherine Attla and published in 1983 by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

As of 1978 there were three Koyukon Language dialects (Lower, Central and Upper).Junior Dictionary for Central Koyukon Athabaskan, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Jones, Eliza (author), 1978, http://www.uafanlc.arsc.edu/data/Online/KO972J1978i/koyukon%20junior%20dictionary.pdf{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Lower Koyukon

was spoken in Kaltag and Nulato; Central Koyukon was spoken on the Yukon River in the villages of Galena, Ruby, Koyukuk and part of Tanana, and on the Koyukuk River in the villages of Huslia, Hughes, and Allakaket; Upper Koyukon was spoken at Stevens Village, Rampart, and part of Tanana.

In 2012, Susan Pavskan reported:

On Thursday evenings Denaakk'e (Koyukon Athabascan) classes are held at Yukon-Koyukuk School District offices in Fairbanks and Huslia. About 18 people from four generations attended Thursday over video-conference. At the end of class, I demonstrated how MP3 sound files can be imported into iTunes then synced with iPads or iPods. The students demonstrated these to their parents and grandparents.{{cite web | url=http://www.yksd.com/cms/lib07/AK01001402/centricity/domain/25/03-05-2012.pdf | title=Interior tribal leaders help promote language with after-school programs | publisher=Fairbanks Daily News-Miner | date=March 5, 2012 | access-date=30 January 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150130173145/http://www.yksd.com/cms/lib07/AK01001402/centricity/domain/25/03-05-2012.pdf | archive-date=2015-01-30 |url-status=live}}

The children's show Molly of Denali features the Koyukon language.

Sounds are given in IPA with the orthographic equivalent in angled brackets:

{{cite journal

| last = Axelrod

| first = Melissa

| date = April 1990

| title = Incorporation in Koyukon Athapaskan

| journal = International Journal of American Linguistics

| volume = 56

| issue = 2

| pages = 79–95

| publisher = University of Chicago

| location = Chicago

| doi = 10.1086/466149

| jstor = 1265128

| s2cid = 144552080

}}

Plosives and affricates, other than the labial b and the glottal {{'}}, distinguish plain, aspirated and ejective forms. Other consonants include labial and alveolar nasals; alveolar, velar and glottal fricatives; and alveolar and palatal approximants. Again other than the labial m and the glottal h, these distinguish forms with and without voice.

There are four full vowels in Koyukon:

• {{IPA link|iː}} {{angle bracket|ee}}
• {{IPA link|uː}} {{angle bracket|oo}}
• {{IPA link|æː}} {{angle bracket|aa}}
• {{IPA link|ɔː}} {{angle bracket|o}}

And there are three reduced vowels:

• {{IPA link|ʊ}} {{angle bracket|u}}
• {{IPA link|ə}} {{angle bracket|e}} (previously {{angle bracket|i}} and {{angle bracket|a}})
• {{IPA link|ɞ}} {{angle bracket|ʉ}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Attla |first=Catherine |year=1983 |title=Sitsiy yu̳gh noholnik ts'in' = As my grandfather told it: traditional stories from the Koyukuk |location=Fairbanks |publisher=Alaska Native Language Center and Yukon-Koyukuk School District |lccn=86621653}}
• {{cite journal |last=Axelrod |first=Melissa |year=1990 |title=Incorporation in Koyukon Athabaskan |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=179–195|doi=10.1086/466149 |s2cid=144552080 }}
• {{cite book |last=Axelrod |first=Melissa |year=1993 |title=The Semantics of Time: Aspectual Categorization in Koyukon Athabaskan |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0803210329 |lccn=92042719}}
• {{cite book |last=Axelrod |first=Melissa |year=2000 |chapter=The Semantics of Classification in Koyukon Athabaskan |title=The Athabaskan Languages: Perspectives on a Native American Language Family |editor-last=Fernald |editor-first=T |editor-first2=Paul R. |editor-last2=Platero |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
• {{cite book |author=Chief Henry |others=Transcribed and edited by Eliza Jones |year=1976 |title=K'ooltsaaẖ Ts'in'. Koyukon Riddles |location=Fairbanks |publisher=Alaska Native Language Center |url=https://library.alaska.gov/hist/hist_docs/docs/anlm/07297565.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821124119/http://library.alaska.gov/hist/hist_docs/docs/anlm/07297565.pdf |archive-date=2014-08-21}}
• {{cite book |author=Chief Henry |year=1979 |title=Chief Henry Yugh Noholnigee: The Stories Chief Henry Told |others=Transcribed and edited by Eliza Jones |location=Fairbanks |publisher=Alaska Native Language Center}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Henry |first1=David |first2=Kay |last2=Henry |year=1969 |title=Koyukon locationals |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=136–142}}
• {{cite book |last1=Jette |first1=Jules |first2=Eliza |last2=Jones |editor-first=James |editor-last=Kari |year=2000 |title=Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary |location=Fairbanks |publisher=Alaska Native Language Center}}
• {{cite book |last=Jones |first=Eliza |year=1986 |title=Koyukon Ethnogeography |publisher=Alaska Historical Commission |url=https://www.uaf.edu/anla/record.php?identifier=KO972J1986}}
• {{cite book |last=Jones |first=Eliza |title=Junior Dictionary for Central Koyukon Athabaskan: Dinaakkanaaga Ts'inh Huyoza |year=1992 |publisher=Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks |url=https://www.uaf.edu/anla/record.php?identifier=KO972J1978i}}
• {{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Richard K. |year=1986 |title=Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226571638}}

{{refend}}

• [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1892/koyukon.html Service Book in the Dialect of the Qlīyukuwhūtana Indians: Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Upper Koyukon (1908)] digitized by Richard Mammana
• [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/ Alaska Native Language Center]
• [http://www.asna.ca/alaska/research/zagoskin.pdf Word-Lists of the Athabaskan, Yup'ik and Alutiiq Languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717013359/http://www.asna.ca/alaska/research/zagoskin.pdf |date=2012-07-17 }} by Lt. Laurence Zagoskin, 1847 (containing Koyukon on pages 3–8)
• [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\pca&limit=-1 Koyukon basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database]

{{Athabaskan languages}}

{{Languages of Alaska}}

Category:Koyukon

Category:Endangered Dené–Yeniseian languages

Category:Indigenous languages of Alaska

Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Subarctic

Category:Northern Athabaskan languages

Category:Native American language revitalization

Category:Official languages of Alaska