Nearly the whole of the data collection was done at CILLDI, the Canadian Indigenous Language and Literacy Development Institute, an annual three week summer program held at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. CILLDI draws fluent speakers of indigenous communities throughout northern North America. CILLDI also offers certification training in language documentation and linguistic analysis practices through a Community Linguist Certificate (CLC), awarded by the University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts.
Participants in the data collection for this Atlas where informed of the project by word of mouth. Participation by CILLDI students was entirely voluntary, it was not associated to any of the classes. Those speakers who expressed interest were informed of the project, the methods and goals were described. CILLDI participants take a phonetics class and are aware of the methods of phonetic documentation. Participants were paid for their time. Several different types of speech collection were done.
- Phoneme list
- Dene Comparative Lexicon Project
- Krauss tone word list
- Toy Game, a conversation game
The phoneme list: a list of the contrastive sounds of the Dene phoneme inventory for a participant's language were given to the participant, with example words that exemplify that contrast. Participants were asked to either supply a word in their own language or use the word in the list. After the list was rehearsed, the speaker was recorded, saying each word in the list three times. This is a classic Ladefoged-type phoneme elicitation method.
Dene Comparative Lexicon Project: A word list of items such as body parts, kinship terms and animals was given to participants. Their task was to provide the word in their language for that item. We then rehearsed and recorded speakers saying those words they identified.
Krauss tone word list: The Krauss (2005) word list from the seven tables in the Athabaskan Tone study of tonogenesis in the Dene languages. Speakers were given the English word and asked to provide the word as it is spoken in their language. We then rehearsed and recorded speakers saying those words they identified.
Toy Game: This is a conversation game based on the Map Task. Speakers sit opposite each other at a table, but cannot see each other. Common objects, small toys, are placed in front of both of them, placed on a piece of paper on which is drawn three shapes. The task is for speakers to arrange their objects in the same order. When possible this is video-recorded. Speakers are performing a task in which they cooperate with each other, asking questions and providing answers to reach their goal. This task elicits natural conversation. The transcription of this material requires the help of native speakers.