Lower Tanana Athabascan verb paradigms

Janna Mercedes Urschel
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:57:17 PDT

This thesis presents documentation of verb paradigms in the Minto-Nenana dialect of the Lower Tanana Athabascan language, based on fieldwork with four native speakers of the language. Lower Tanana is a severely endangered language spoken in the Interior region of Alaska. The paradigms document the combinations of five Athabascan verb prefixes: classifier, subject, mode, conjugation, and negation. Introductory material describes the Lower Tanana language and outlines the grammar of Lower Tanana verbs, with reference to properties of verbs exemplified in the paradigms. These introductory sections are addressed to teachers and learners of the Lower Tanana language, that they might make optimal use of this thesis as a reference tool in language revitalization efforts.