YNLC

Meet  the Staff at the YNLC

André Bourcier

Linguist — email

André joined YNLC staff as Linguist in October, 2001. His position is jointly funded by YNLC and the Aboriginal Language Services branch of the Government of Yukon. Until recently, he taught courses in linguistics at the University of Laval in Quebec City, where he was born. Also in recent years he has worked with the Inuvialuit and the Gwich'in in the Northwest Territories to find ways to preserve and enhance the use of the traditional languages in their communities (cf. Language Planning for Gwich'in and Inuvialuit Communities (1.2 MB PDF))

Prior to moving permanently to the Yukon, André came to YNLC twice on special projects. In the fall of 1999 he worked with Mary-Jane Kunnizzi and John Ritter on the Petitot Dictionary Pilot Project. In 1876, Father Émile Petitot, a Catholic Oblate, published the Dictionnaire de la langue Dènè-dinjié,a comparative dictionary of Chipewyan, Hare, and Gwich'in. The project showed what would be involved to make the Gwich'in information more accessible to modern day people. And in the fall of 2000 he worked on the Gwich'in Listening Exercises book with the same two staff members. He also documented different features of Gwich'in grammar and compared these with related features in other Athapaskan languages.