Faculty

Walkie Charles

Director
Alaska Native Language Center

swcharles@alaska.edu | 907-474-7874

Brooks 107A

Walkie Charles received his PhD in Applied Linguistics in 2011. His interests include Dynamic Assessment, Sociocultural Theory, and Yugtun (Yup'ik Eskimo) Language teaching and learning. Since Walkie began teaching Yugtun at UAF, he has been involved in the Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) Program, through which he earned his doctorate. His dissertation was titled Dynamic Assessment in a Yugtun L2 Intermediate Adult Classroom.

Anna Berge

Director
Alaska Native Language Archive
Professor
Linguistics

amberge@alaska.edu | 907-474-5351

Brooks 421

Anna Berge received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997. She has specialized in West Greenlandic and Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) and does theoretical and descriptive work in syntax and discourse. She is currently working on comparative Eskimo-Aleut linguistics, Aleut language documentation, and Aleut language learning materials.

Curriculum Vitae

Berge_CV.pdf

Specialties

I specialize in the documentation, description, and history of the Eskimo-Aleut languages, especially in the areas of morphosyntax, discourse, typology, and prehistoric language contact. I have worked with communities in Russia, Alaska, Eastern Canada, and Greenland, although my focus has been on Unangam Tunuu. As it is Unangam Tunuu is currently highly endangered, my work has included being actively engaged in language maintenance and revitalization activities, and on the long-term archival preservation of the results of documentation.

Key specialties: Documentation and description, Eskimo-Aleut, language contact in prehistory, morphosyntax and typology, language maintenance and revitalization, language archiving.

Classes Taught

I teach classes in the following subjects at both undergraduate and graduate levels: Morphology, Semantics, Field Methods, Community Language Documentation Language Contact, Language Contact in Prehistory (focusing on the North Pacific Coast), Eskimo-Aleut Linguistics, Unangax̂ Language and Culture, and Documentation and Archives

Current Research

Language Contact in Prehistory along the North Pacific Coast

My current focus is in understanding the nature of the historical development of Unangam Tunuu, its divergence from the Eskimoan branch of the family, and the factors that encouraged this divergence. This work is highly multidisciplinary, and involves results from the fields of linguistics, archaeology, genetics, paleo-environmental studies, and ethnohistory, and the geographical area that includes the current homelands of the Unangan, Sugpiat, Dena’ina, Eyak, and Tlingit.

Publications

Articles

Subsistence Terms in Unangam Tunuu (Aleut), Language Dispersal Beyond Farming

Coordination in Pribilof Islands Unangam Tunuu, Linguistic Discovery

Hans Egede Oqaluppalaarutaa: Hans Egede’s Story, Proceedings of the 14th Inuit Studies Conference

Insubordination in Aleut. Dynamics of Insubordination

Divine Inspiration. Revue Amerindia

Polysynthesis in Aleut (Unangam Tunuu). Linguistic Typology of the North 3

Object Reduction in Aleut. Asian and African Languages and Linguistics 7: Transitivity and Its Related Phenomena

Coordination in Pribilof Islands Unangam Tunuu. Linguistic Discovery.

Adequacy in Documentation. Language Documentation: Practice and Values

Unexpected Non-Anaphoric Marking in Aleut. Rara & Rarissima: Documenting the fringes of linguistic diversity

Re-evaluating the Linguistic Reconstruction of Proto-Eskimo-Aleut. Journal of Historical Linguistics

Reexamining the Linguistic Prehistory of Aleut (Unangam Tunuu). Digging For Words: Archaeolinguistic Case Studies from the XV Nordic TAG Conference Held at the University of Copenhagen

Subsistence Terms in Unangam Tunuu (Aleut). Language Dispersal Beyond Farming

Origins of Linguistic Diversity in the Aleutian Islands. Human Biology

Publications

How the Atkans Talk (Niigugis Mataliin Tununxtazangis)

Pribilof Anĝaĝigan Tuningin / The Way We Talk in the Pribilofs

Topic and discourse structure in West Greenlandic agreement constructions

Hishinlai' Peter

Assistant Professor
Alaska Native Languages

hrpeter@alaska.edu | 907-474-7875

Brooks 107

Hishinlai’ 2019 Ph.D. eenjit tr’agwah’yà’ diiginjik hàa tr’agwarah’in hàa. Jìi kwaii geenjit gineech’ałtthat -- nats’ahts’à’ diiginjìk geech’oorahtan, nats’ahts’à’ diiginjìk gooraa’ee, ginjik ch’izhii gooraa’ee, jùu tr’inlįį, ts’à’ nats’à’ diilak nąįį dèegee’yà’. Hishinlai’ Dinjii Zhuh nąįį Alaska ts’à’ Canada nahkat gwats’an goovàa tr’agwah’yà’.

Hishinlai’ received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics in 2019. Her research and interests are on Indigenous language learning and teaching, second language acquisition, identity, sociocultural theory, and activity theory. She has worked extensively with Indigenous groups (Athabascan, Haida, Tlingit, Alutiiq, Inupiaq, Yup’ik and Aleut) throughout Alaska and Canada.

Qaġġun Chelsey Zibell

Assistant Professor
Iñupiaq Language

czibell@alaska.edu | 907-474-6606

Brooks 107C

Qaġġun Chelsey Zibell received an M. Ed. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a focus on Secondary Education in 2017. Her interests include Iñupiaq grammar, Iñupiaq language literature development, and online curriculum development. She is also the faculty advisor for the Iñu-Yupiaq Dance Group, a UAF student organization that practices traditional Iñupiaq and Yup'ik dances.