Richard Dauenhauer dies at 72; scholar of Tlingit language, culture (fwd link)

[Phil Cash Cash]

*Richard Dauenhauer dies at 72; scholar of Tlingit language, culture*

*By **JILL LEOVY*

AUGUST 24, 2014

A fish doesn't jump in Tlingit, the native language of indigenous people of
Southeast Alaska.

It performs a feat no word in English can adequately express. The verb in
Tlingit captures the instant when a fish breaks the surface, the sequence
of sounds as it rises and the spray of water that spreads around it.

That some modern-day Alaskans get frustrated as they search for English
equivalents can be attributed in part to the work of Richard Dauenhauer, a
linguist, anthropologist, playwright and former Alaska poet laureate who
died Tuesday of cancer in Juneau, Alaska.

Access full article below:
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-richard-dauenhauer-20140824-story.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20140824/5467bcd5/attachment.htm>