Tlingit

• Beginning Tlingit (3rd edition), an introductory course compiled by Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer, includes two cassettes (2 hours) and a 208 spiral-bound textbook. The course combines a systematic and structural introduction to Tlingit grammar with phrases and conversations for everyday use. The tapes provide extensive pronunciation practice as well as songs and other materials. The textbook includes a verb chart and the texts to the songs. --- Order from: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, One Sealaska Plaza, Suite 201, Juneau, AK 99801 (tel: 907/463-4844). Also available for $55 from Audio-Forum, 96 Broad St., Guilford, CT 06437 (tel: 1-800-243-1234). [Jan. 1995]
  
  
• Nora Marks Dauenhauer and her husband Richard Dauenhauer have edited three collections of Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, published by the Univ. of Washington Press in collaboration with the Sealaska Heritage Foundation:
  
  * Haa Shuká, Our Ancestors: Tlingit Oral Narratives (1987, 514 pp., $35 (cloth) / $17.50 (paper)). 15 narrative texts, in Tlingit with line-by-line English translations on facing pages. The lengthy introduction contains very interesting sections on oral style and literary themes, as well as some cultural, historical, and linguistic background. Of particular note is a section on the problems of translation and the devices used to surmount these. In addition, the texts are extensively annotated (nearly 200 pages).
  
  * Haa Tuwunáagu Yís, For Healing Our Spirit: Tlingit Oratory (1990, 570 pp. $17.50 (paper)/$35 (cloth)). In this publication the Dauenhauers turn to formal oratory, recorded in performance. Included are 32 speeches by 21 Tlingit elders, most taped between 1968 and 1988 (two were recorded on wax cylinders in 1899). The texts (with facing English translations and detailed annotations) are preceded by a detailed introductory essay that deals with, among other subjects: Tlingit social structure; the concept of at.óow; social and cultural settings for oratory; simile and metaphor; and the vocabulary of the Tlingit spirit world.
  
  * Haa Kusteeyí, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories (1994, 928 pp., 205 photos, $29.95 (paper)/$50 (cloth)). Biographies and life histories of more than 50 Tlingit men and women, most born between 1880 and 1910, supplemented by numerous historical photographs. Appendices include previously unpublished historical documents, along with Tlingit texts of accounts gathered from living memory, with facing translations.
  
  --- Order from: Univ. of Washington Press, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096 (tel: 800-441-4115; fax: 800-669-7993).] [Jan. 1995]