Walter Dyk Collection
1931-1956
(0.4 linear feet)

497.3 H998m

© American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street * Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
 American Philosophical Society 105 South Fifth Street Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
Table of contents Abstract
The linguist Walter Dyk (1899-1972) began his career as a graduate student under Edward Sapir studying the Wishram language. Following his MA thesis "Verb types in Wishram" (Chicago, 1931) and dissertation "A Grammar of Wishram" (Yale, 1933), Dyk turned to the study of Navajo language and culture, publishing his best known works, "autobiographies" of two of his consultants, Left Handed (1938) and Old Mexican (1948).

The Dyk Collection consists of copies of Dyk's MA thesis and dissertation, some fields notes and related publications on Wishram, and commentary by Mary Haas, C. F. Voegelin, and Dell Hymes (who assembled the collection). Among the more interesting items are a particularly long and informative letter from Sapir commenting on Dyk's dissertation, and a series of letters between Pete McGuff and Sapir, written while the former was doing fieldwork on Wasco at Fort Simcoe, Washington, 1906-1908.
Background note
Born in Germany on September 30, 1899, the linguist Walter Dyk emigrated to Gloversville, N.Y., as a young child. After receiving his bachelor's degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1928, he pursued graduate work in linguistics under Edward Sapir, receiving his MA at Chicago for "Verb Types in Wishram" (1931) and his dissertation at Yale for "A Grammar of Wishram" (1933).

Following completion of his doctorate, Dyk turned from Chinookan languages to Navajo, doing intensive fieldwork in Arizona in 1934 on a grant from the National Research Council that he had secured with the support of Sapir. His analysis of clan and kinship informed his two most influential works, Son of Old Man Hat (New York, 1938), an "autobiographical" narrative written with his consultant Left Handed, and A Navaho Autobiography (New York, 1948), concerning Old Mexican. Dyk's Notes and Illustrations of Navaho Sex Behavior was similarly influential in its discussion of incest.

Dyk served as a fellow at the Harvard Psychological Clinic and taught at Simmons College and, after 1942, at Brooklyn College. However the progressive effects of Parkinson's disease began increasingly to take effect. Although able to return to Arizona for research in 1947-1948, he was ultimately forced to retire from teaching in 1962. He died in 1972, leaving a wife and two children.


Scope and content
The Walter Dyk Collection consists of 9 folders and two notebooks relating to Dyk's dissertation research on Wishram, 1931-1933. It includes copies of his MS thesis (Chicago, 1931) and dissertation (Yale, 1933), as well as papers and notes sent to Dell Hymes in the mid-1950s, when Hymes was working on Wishram-Wasco. Of particular interest are a very long and detailed letter from Edward Sapir commenting on phonology in Dyk's dissertation, which sheds light on Sapri's thinking about linguistics, as well as his mentoring, and a series of letters between Pete McGuff and Sapir, when McGuff was doing fieldwork on Wasco at Fort Simcoe, Washington, in 1906-1908.

Administrative information
Restrictions
None.

Provenance
Gift of Dell H. Hymes, 1988.

Preferred citation
Cite as: Walter Dyk Collection, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information
Catalogued rsc 2003.

Additional information
Related material
Additional material by Walter Dyk is located in the ACLS Wasco: (Pn4a.10) and Wishram (Pn4a.5, Pn 4a6, Pn4a10), and there is Dyk correspondence with Gordonm Marsh (x4a.2).

The Franz Boas Papers contains a small correspondence with Dyk, and Dyk is mentioned in several letters between Boas and Sapir.

References
American Anthropologist 74 (1976).

Dyk, Walter, Son Of Old Man Hat.(Lincioln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1938).

Added entries
Subjects
  • Indians of North America--Languages
  • Wasco-Wishram language

    • Contributors
  • Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972
  • Haas, Mary R. (Mary Rosamond), 1910-1996
  • Hymes, Dell H., b. 1927
  • McGuff, Pete
  • Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939
  • Voegelin, Charles Frederick, 1906-1986
  • Wolf, J. G.

    • Genre terms
  • Dissertations
  • Field notes
  • Masters theses

    		•
    Contact information
    American Philosophical Society
    105 South Fifth Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
    [http://www.amphilsoc.org/]

    ©3/2003


    Detailed inventory

    		 Dyk, Walter.
    A Grammar of Wishram     		1933 TMsS, 157p., 7p. notes Box 1: 1

    		Dissertation, Yale University, 1933.

    		Dyk, Walter.
    Stress Accent in Wishram     		1933 TMsS, 4p. (2 copies), 7p. Box 1: 2

    		Two versions of a paper, with TMs comments (1p.) by Dell Hymes, 1955.
    Published in IJAL 22 (1956): 238-241.

    		Dyk, Walter.
    Theme Verbs     		1933 TMsS, 7p. Box 1: 3

    		Marginal notes by Edward Sapir.

    		Dyk, Walter.
    Verb Types in Wishram     		1931 TMsS, 55p., 4p. notes Box 1: 4

    		MS thesis, University of Chicago, 1931, with accompanying notes by Dell Hymes, ca.1955.

    		Dyk, Walter.
    Wishram Notes     		n.d. AMsS, 46p. Box 1: 5

    		Haas, Mary.
    Wishram notes     		ca.1933-1934 AMsS, 74p., TMs 6p. Box 1: 6

    		Notes taken by Haas on Dyk's talk in Sapir's seminar, Yale, ca.1933-34. Includes Mary Haas ALS to Dell Hymes, n.d., 1p.
    Includes a copy of the Oedipal myth of Diabixwásxwas, "the only record in the Wishram-Wasco language of a major Chinookan myth, recorded in Kathlamet by Boas and in Clackamas by Jacobs, and in English froma Wishram speaker by Edward Curtis' team."

    		Hymes, Dell H..
    Sketch of a plan to combine data of Dyk, Frenchy, and Hymes     		ca.1955 TMsS and AMs, 7p. Box 1: 7

    		Dissertation, Yale University, 1933.

    		Sapir, Edward.
    ALS to Walter Dyk     		1933 Aug. 29 ALS, 42p. Box 1: 8

    		Detailed commentary on Dyk's dissertation, phonology.

    		McGuff, Peter.
    Correspondence with Edward Sapir     		1906-1908 TMsS, 157p., 7p. notes Box 1: 9

    		Correspondence regarding McGuff's fieldwork on Wasco at Fort Simcoe, Washington, 1906-1908.

    		Sapir, Edward.
    ALS to Pete McGuff     		1906 June 13 4p. Box 1: 9

    		McGuff, Pete.
    ALS to Edward Sapir     		1906 August 17 3p. Box 1: 9

    		Sapir, Edward.
    ALS to Pete McGuff     		1907 September 17 3p. Box 1: 9

    		Sapir, Edward.
    ALS to Pete McGuff     		1907 December 4 7p. Box 1: 9

    		McGuff, Pete.
    ALS to Edward Sapir     		1907 December 20 1p. Box 1: 9

    		McGuff, Pete.
    ALS to Edward Sapir     		[1907 December] 4p. Box 1: 9

    		McGuff, Pete.
    Wasco-Wishram notes     		[1907 December] 17p. Box 1: 9

    		McGuff, Pete.
    ALS to Edward Sapir     		1908 June 15 4p. Box 1: 9

    		Sapir, Edward.
    Wasco notes marginal to Boas'; Chinook vocabulary     		[ca.1907-1908] AMs, 26p. Box 1: 9

    		Voegelin, Charles Frederick.
    Abstract of Walter Dyk's Dissertation, A Grammar of Wishram     		1951 TMsS, 12p. Box 1: 10

    		Prepared "as an aid to Dell Hymes, who was to work witrh Wasco (i.e. Wishram) at Warm Springs, Oregon that summer, under the supervision of David French."


    		Wolf, J. G..
    Wishram dictionary     		ca.1955-1956 TMsS, 38p. Box 1: 11

    		"Compiled by Dr. J. G. Wolf from E. Sapir's matierlas, edited by E. Sapir."


    		Dyk, Walter.
    Wishram fieldnotes     		ca.1931-1933 Notebook, 54p. Vol. 1

    		Dyk, Walter.
    Wishram fieldnotes     		ca.1931-1933 Notebook, 6p., 15p. loose notes Vol. 1