International Polar Year (IPY)
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 year designated an International Polar Year (IPY) was a hallmark of international cooperation in science.
IPY: Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages
This IPY project is researching languages that are unique and critical components of the arctic environment.
For project collaborators, it is an awareness that language is, as linguist Michael Krauss explains, "a very fragile membrane that humanity depends on, that we evolved in, that makes us human."
Since 2007, researchers from all over the world have been motivated to participate in this collaborative language saving mission. A varied level of continuous personal communication threaded with honesty, trust, patience, and above all integrity, strengthens the common purpose. This is our project style and it capitalizes on individual talents and expertise in a flexible, manageable effort.
Our project is funded by the National Science Foundation under grant #732787.
Project Collaborators
(click on language links for current project results)
Michael Krauss - Principal Investigator
- Eyak (grammar and lexicon)
Evgenii Golovko - St. Petersburg Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Alaska Russian (documentation)
- Alaska Russian (recording)
- Attuan Aleut (documentation)
- Emel'yanova's Collection (fileslip transliteration)
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 (grammar and lexicon)
- Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan (recording)
Jeff Leer - Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States
- Alutiiq (lexicon)
- Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon (CAL) (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
Pekka Sammallahti - University of Oulu, Finland
- Alaskan Saami (transcription-Mary Bahr)
- Alaskan Saami (transcription-Clement Sara)
Nikolai Vakhtin - St. Petersburg European University, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Siberian Yupik (documentation)