A student of Edward Sapir at the Univerity of Chicago, the linguist Fanggui (Fang-Kuei) Li was a pioneer in studying the Canadian and Pacific Coast Dene languages. After completing a Master's thesis on the Sarcee verb-stem in 1927, Li was advised by Sapir to continue on to other Athapascan languages, and with funding provided in part by the American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages, he spent the summer of 1927 getting an introduction to field research by working under Sapir on the Hupa reservation in California. Much of Li's effort that summer was spent on the language of the coastal Mattole, which had received virtually no previous attention, and to a lesser degree on Wailaki.

In the following year, Li arranged for two months of fieldwork at Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, where he studied the Denesuline ("Chipewyan") language with François Mandeville, a "half-breed from Fort Resolution." Arriving on June 28, 1928, Li worked intensively with Mandeville, whom he considered "very intelligent," although his dialect differed from that recorded by Père LeGoff in his Grammaire de la Langue Montagnaise (Montreal, 1889). Li had selected Chipewyan on the belief that it contained more "archaic features" than other Athapascan languages, and believed that it would therefore provide insight into the linguistic evolution of the family. During this field trip, he also collected material on Hare at Fort Smith and some Slavey. Later in his career, he did important work on determining the relationships between Eyak and other Dene languages.

Although Li retained an interest in Dene languages, by 1937 he became almost completely absorbed in classifying the major languages and dialects of China, the work for which he is best remembered. Li reconginized seven major branches, Mandarin (or Northern), Wu, Xiang, Gan, Kejia (or Hakka), Yue (or Cantonese), and Min.

Associated with the Institute of History and Philology from the 1920s on, Li held appointments in the Departments of Linguistics and Anthropology at the University of Washington until the 1970s, moving to the University of Hawaii.

The heart of the Fanggui Li Collection is comprised of ten notebooks kept by the Chinese-American linguist Fanggui Li relating to his research on the Denesuline ("Chipewyan") language in 1928. Recorded in the field, these texts consist of phonetic transcriptions of stories elicited from François Mandeville in Denesuline ("Chipewyan") (and, in one instance, Baptiste Ferrier) in July 1928, with interlinear English translations.

The balance of the collection consists of an extensive slipfile for the Denesuline ("Chipewyan") language, and two audio cassettes of oral history interviews conducted by Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson in 1982, concering Li's memories of Edward Sapir and other colleagues in linguistics.

Provenance

Donated to the APS by M. Terry and Laurence Thompson, March 30, 1996 (1996-251, 252ms, 253r.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Fanggui Li Collection, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Catalogued by rsc, September 2002.

Separated material

One book owned by Li has been transferred for storage to the Printed Materials Department:

LeGoff, Laurent, Grammaire de la Langue Montagnaise (Montreal, 1889).

Related material

Li, Fanggui, Mattole, An Athabaskan Language (Chicago: Univ,. of Chicago, 1930). Call no.: 497.3 L622m

Additional correspondence of Fanggui Li is located in the papers of Franz Boas (B B61, including a two page report of the field season of 1928) and in the correspondence of the American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native American Languages (506.73 Am72co). The latter collection contains a report of his 1927 fieldwork with Sapir on Hupa, Mattole, and Wailaki, and correspondence relating to his grant.

Bibliography

• Field notes.
• Slip files
• Sound recordings

• Li, Fanggui
• Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939
• Thompson, Laurence C.
• Thompson, M. Terry

• Chipewyan language
• Indians of North America -- Languages
• Linguistics