Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary

By: Jetté, Jules ; Jones, Eliza

ISBN: 1-55500-117-3

Date: 2000

The Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary is a collaborative work by the Jesuit missionary/linguist Jules Jetté, who began collecting words and cultural information on the Yukon River beginning in 1898, and scholar and native speaker Eliza Jones, who refined and enhanced the original material over 27 years. Jetté died in 1927, leaving an unpublished manuscript handwritten and hand-bound in seven volumes. In 1974, Jones began working with the Jetté manuscript, transcribing it into a practical writing system and adding sample sentences as well as cultural and grammatical comments. The main entries include more than 8,000 vocabulary items covering all aspects of Koyukon life. Dictionary entries are illustrated by 17,500 example sentences, 3,200 descriptive comments, and 90 of Jetté’s drawings, diagrams, and photos. Introductory sections explain the sound system, writing system, and the differences between the three Koyukon dialects. Ten appendices cover topics such as the Koyukon verb complex, kinship terms, loan words from other languages, and flora and fauna. xciv + 1,118 pages, 114 figures, 6 maps, bibliography, index. A PDF version of the dictionary is available on USB for $10.