International Polar Year

On three occasions, over the past 125 years, scientists from around the world have banded together to organize concentrated scientific and exploring programs in the polar region.  Each polar year was a hallmark of international cooperation in science. 

The National Science Foundation is funding this International Polar Year (IPY) project, under Grant No. 732787.  The project is researching  languages that are unique and critical components of the Arctic environment. Our goal is  the documentation of this acutely endangered diversity.

Collaborators

During the next three years, the principal investigator, Michael Krauss will be preparing the grammar and lexicon of the Eyak language as well as lead an international team of veteran linguists from Alaska, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Evgenii Golovko - St. Petersburg Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia

  • Kodiak Russian Creole (documentation)
  • Attuan Aleut (documentation)

Steven Jacobson - Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States

  • Central Alaskan Yup'ik (lexicon)
  •  Siberian Yupik (lexicon)

Andrej Kibrik - Moscow Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

  • Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan (grammar and lexicon)

Jeff Leer - Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States

  • Alutiiq (lexicon)
  • Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon
  • Tlingit (lexicon)

Edna Ahgeak MacLean - University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States

  • North Slope Inupiaq (lexicon)

Osahito Miyaoka - Osaka Gakuin University , Kobe, Japan

  • Central Alaskan Yup'ik (grammar)

Willem J. de Reuse - University of North Texas, Texas, United States

  • Han Athabaskan (lexicon)

John Ritter - Yukon Native Language Center, Whitehorse, Canada

  • Alaska - Yukon Border Athabaskan (documentation)

Marie-Lucie Tarpent - Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, N.S., Canada 

  • Reconstruction principles from Penutian Languages

Pekka Sammallahti - University of Oulu, Finland

  • Alaskan Saami (documentation)

Nikolai Vakhtin - St. Petersburg European University, St. Petersburg, Russia

  • Siberian Yupik (documentation)