James Kari is a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and Professor

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

with the

Alaska Native Language Center The Alaska Native Language Center, established in 1972 in Fairbanks, Alaska, is a research center focusing on the research and documentation of the Native languages of Alaska. It publishes grammars, dictionaries, folklore collections and research m ...

at the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for cla ...

(UAF) specializing in the

Dene The Dene people () are an Aboriginal peoples in Canada, indigenous group of First Nations in Canada, First Nations who inhabit the northern Boreal forest of Canada, boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languag ...

(a.k.a.

Athabascan languages Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...

) of Alaska. In the past forty-five years he has done extensive linguistic work in many Dene languages including

Ahtna The Ahtna (also Ahtena, Atna, Ahtna-kohtaene, or Copper River) are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. The people's homeland called Atna Nenn', is located in the Copper River area of souther ...

, Dena'ina,

Koyukon The Koyukon (russian: Коюконы) are an Alaska Native Athabascan people of the Athabascan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. Their traditional territory is along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers where they subsisted for thousands of years by ...

, Deg Hit'an,

Holikachuk Holikachuk (also Innoko, Organized Village of Grayling, Innoka-khotana, Tlëgon-khotana) are a Yupikized Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group to western Alaska. Their native territory includes the ...

Lower Tanana Lower Tanana (also Tanana and/or Middle Tanana) is an endangered language spoken in Interior Alaska in the lower Tanana River villages of Minto and Nenana. Of about 380 Tanana people in the two villages, about 30 still speak the language. As of ...

, Middle Tanana,

Tanacross Tanacross (also Transitional Tanana) is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken by fewer than 60 people in eastern Interior Alaska. Overview The word Tanacross (from " Tanana Crossing") has been used to refer both to a village in eastern ...

Upper Tanana Upper Tanana (also known as Tabesna, Nabesna or Nee'aanèegn') is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken in eastern Interior Alaska, United States, mainly in the villages of Northway, Tetlin, and Tok, and adjacent areas of the Canadian ter ...

, and Babine-Witsuwit'en. He was on the faculty of UAF from 1973 until his retirement in 1997. He continues to work on numerous Alaska Native language projects. He is the author or editor of over 200 publications, including more than 4000 pages of bilingual texts in seven Dene languages. He is the most prolific contributor to the Alaska Native Language Archive (with more than 1000 entries as of 2019). His special interest is Dene ethnogeography, and he has compiled or documented more than 14,000 place names in fourteen Alaska or Canadian Dene languages. He worked with Dena'ina writer and ethnographer

Peter Kalifornsky Peter Kalifornsky (October 12, 1911 – June 5, 1993) was a writer and ethnographer of the Dena'ina Athabaskan of Kenai, Alaska. Early life, family and education He was the great-grandson of Qadanalchen, who took the name Kalifornsky after wo ...

on a 1991 compilation of his creative writings. In 2008 he was the organizer of the Dene–Yeniseian Symposium in Alaska, and co-editor of the volume ''The Dene–Yeniseian Connection'' published in 2010. In 2009 was selected Kari for the Alaska Governor's Award for the Humanities. In March 2013 Kari received the Professional Achievement Award at the 40th annual meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association. In 2019 he was presented with a volume of papers by colleagues that recognize his career in Dene research (Holton and Thornton 2019).

Education

* Ph.D., University of New Mexico (Curriculum & Instruction and Linguistics), 1973; Doctoral dissertation: Navajo Verb Prefix Phonology * M.A.T., Reed College (Literature), 1969 * U. S. Peace Corps, Teacher of English as a Foreign Language, Bafra Lisesi,

Bafra Bafra is a district of Samsun Province of Turkey. It is a settlement located from the Black Sea, in the fertile delta of the Kızılırmak River. The Bafra Plain is famous in Turkey for its rich soil and high quality tobacco growing conditions. ...

, Turkey, 1966–68 * B.A., University of California at Los Angeles (English), 1966

Selected works

Articles * Kari, James. 1989 Some Principles of Alaskan Athabaskan Toponymic Knowledge. In ''General and Amerindian Ethnolinguistics, In Remembrance of Stanley Newman,'' ed. by M. R. Key and H. Hoenigswald. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 129–151. (ANLA
TI972K1989
* Kari, James. 1989. Affix Positions and Zones in the Athabaskan Verb Complex: Ahtna and Navajo. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 55:424 455 * Kari, James. 1991. On the language effort and language work in Alaska Athabaskan. ''The Council'', Dec. 1991, p. 8. (ANLA
CA973K1991
* Kari, James. 1992. Some Concepts in Ahtna Athabaskan Word Formation. In ''Morphology Now,'' ed. by Mark Aronoff; SUNY Series in Linguistics, SUNY Press, pp. 107–133. (ANLA
AT973K1992
* Kari, James. 1996. Linguistic Traces of Dena'ina Strategy at the Archaic Periphery. In ''Adventures Through Time: Readings in the Anthropology of Cook Inlet,'' ed. by Nancy Davis. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society. (ANLA
TI972K1996
* Kari, James. 1996. A Preliminary View of Hydronymic Districts in Northern Athabaskan Prehistory. ''Names'' 44:253-271. * Kari, James. 2005. Language Work in Alaskan Athabaskan and its Relationship to Alaskan Anthropology. ''Alaska Journal of Anthropology'' 3(1):105-119. (ANLA
CA973K2005
*Kari, James. 2010. The concept of geolinguistic conservatism in Na-Dene prehistory . In ''The Dene–Yeniseian Connection. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska.'' Vol. 5, new series. pp. 194–222. (ANLA

* Kari. James. 2011 A Case Study in Ahtna Athabascan Geographic Knowledge. In ''Landscape in Language, Transdisciplinary Perspectives,'' ed. by D.M. Mark, A.G. Turk, N. Burenhult & D.Stea. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 239–260. (ANL

* Kari. James. 2019 The Resilience of Dene Generative Geography, Considering "The ''Nen' Yese Ensemble." ''Alaska Journal of Anthropology'' vol. 17(1-2):44-76. Books * Kari, James. 1976. ''Navajo Verb Prefix Phonology.'' New York: Garland Publishing Company. 328 pp. * Kari, James. 1979. ''Athabaskan Verb Theme Categories: Ahtna.'' Alaska Native Language Center Research Paper No. 2, 230pp. * Kari, James. 1986. ''Tatl'ahwt'aenn Nenn', The Headwaters People's Country, Narratives of the Upper Ahtna Athabaskans.'' Told by Katie John et al. Fairbanks: ANLC. 221 pp. * Kari, James. 1990. ''Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary.'' Fairbanks: ANLC. 712 pp. *Kari, James. 1996.''Ttheek'ädn Ut'iin Yaaniida' Oonign' '', Old Time Stories of the Scottie Creek People. Told in Upper Tanana Athabaskan, by Mary Tyone. ANLC. * Kari, James. (editor-in-chief). 2000. ''Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary'' by Jules Jetté and Eliza Jones. ANLC. 1118 pp. * Kari, James. 2005. Upper Inlet Dena'ina Language Lessons, by Sava Stephan. Alaska Native Heritage Center. * Kari, James. 2007, 2011. ''Dena’ina Topical Dictionary.'' ANLC. 367 pp. Revised Edition eviewed in ''IJAL'' vol. 75:110-113 by Keren Rice.* Kari, James. 2008. (editor) ''Shtutda’ina Da’a Sheł Qudeł, My Forefathers are Still Walking with Me, Verbal Essays on Tsaynen and Qizhjeh Traditions.'' By Andrew Balluta. Anchorage: National Park Service. * Kari, James. 2010. ''Ahtna Travel Narratives, a Demonstration of Shared Geographic Knowledge among Alaska Athabascans.'' Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. Co-editor or co-author of: * Kari, James, and Priscilla Russell Kari. 1982. ''Dena’ina Ełnena: Tanaina Country.'' Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. * Kalifornsky, Peter. 1991 ''K'tl'egh'i Sukdu, A Dena'ina Legacy: The Collected Writings of

'' edited by James Kari and Alan Boraas. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. 20 pp. Reprinted in 2001 with a new introduction by the editors.* Kari, James and James A. Fall. 2016. ''Shem Pete's Alaska: The Territory of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina.'' Revised Second edition. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. * Kari, James. (linguistic editor). 2003. ''Bird Traditions of the Lime Village Area Dena'ina, Upper Stony River Ethno-Ornithology.'' by Russell, Priscilla N. and George C. West. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Knowledge Network. * Kari, James. (linguistic editor). 2007. ''Dnaghelt’ana Qut’ana K’eli Ahdelyax, They Sing the Songs of Many Peoples, The 1954 Nondalton recordings of John Coray.'' by Craig Coray. Anchorage: Kijik Corporation. * Kari, James and Ben A. Potter (editors). 2010. ''The Dene–Yeniseian Connection.'' ''Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska.'' Vol. 5, new series. 369 pp. . * Kari, James and Alan Boraas, Aaron Leggett, and R. Greg Dixon. 2017 ''Bibliography of sources on Dena'ina and Cook Inlet anthropology through 2016'' (UAscholarworks: https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/8285]). * Kari, James and Siri G. Tuttle (editors). 2019. ''Yenida'atah, Ts'utsaede, K'adiide, in Legendary Times, Ancient Times and Recent Times, an Anthology of Ahtna Narratives.'' ANLC. 208 pp. * Holton, Gary and Thomas M. Thornton. 2019. ''Language and Toponymy in Alaska and Beyond, Papers in Honor of James Kari.'' Language Documentation and Conservation Special Publication, No. 17. Alaska Native Language Center and University of Hawaii Press. Honolulu.

References

External links

Table of contents and ordering information for ''The Dene–Yeniseian Connection.''Alaska Native Language CenterAlaska Native Language ArchiveCurriculum vitae for James Kari
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kari, James Living people 1944 births Linguists from the United States University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty Linguists of Na-Dene languages Linguists of Navajo Paleolinguists Linguists of Dené–Yeniseian languages Writers from Alaska Scientists from Alaska