In this paper I review the methodology that I used in beginning my early fieldwork on a tonal Athabaskan language, including preparation through reading and listening, working with speakers, organizing data, and describing and analyzing the data, stressing how these are not steps or stages, but intersect and interact with each other.

Among the many ways in which sounds alternate in the world's languages, changes in the order of sounds (metathesis) are relatively rare. Mutsun, a Southern Costanoan language of California which was documented extensively before the death of its last speaker in 1930, displays three patterns of synchronic consonant-vowel (CV) metathesis. Two of…

This dissertation offers a detailed account of the phonology, morphophonology and elements of the morphosyntax of Kubeo, a language from the Eastern Tukanoan family, spoken in the Northwest Amazon. The dissertation is itself an experiment of how language documentation and empowering of the native speaker community can be combined with academic…

This dissertation is a comprehensive description of the grammar of Sierra Popoluca (SP, aka Soteapanec), a Mixe-Zoquean language spoken by approximately 28,000 people in Veracruz, Mexico. This grammar begins with an introduction to the language, its language family, a typological overview of the language, a brief history of my fieldwork, and the…

The Mapuches, a tribe now numbering about 500,000 people in south central Chile are the descendants of the Araucanians of Spanish legend. Many still speak only their own idiom, which now shows much lexical influence of the surrounding Spanish. This paper is an exposition of Maria Catrileo Chiguailaf de Godo's research in her native language. It…

Spokan is the dialect of Salishan spoken in the westernmost section of the area extending east from the Columbia River in Washington to the foothills of the Rockies in Montana. The present study is an overall treatment of its grammar, presented in three parts--phonology, morphology, and grammar. Extensive illustrations and charts are provided. A…

This dissertation is a grammatical sketch of Colville, a Salishan language of eastern Washington. After an introductory chapter on language family, the phonology (consonants, stops, resonants, vowels) is outlined. The chapter on morphology discusses the basic intransitive nature of all roots and the production of transitive, middle, and…

This noun dictionary of the Athapascan language covers all dialects of the Tanaina language of the Cook Inlet region. It has been prepared for the Dena'ina people to help maintain their language and culture. The introduction explains the Dena'ina dialects and the phonological system of the Dena'ina alphabet. The dictionary is organized into…