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.
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.
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.
Provenance
Gift of Dell H. Hymes, 1988.
Preferred citation
Cite as: Walter Dyk Collection, American Philosophical Society.
Processing information
Catalogued rsc 2003.
General physical description
0.4 linear feet
Related material
Additional material by Walter Dyk is located in the Collection of the American Council of Learned Socities Committee of Native American Languages (Mss.497.3.B63c): Wasco (Pn4a.10) and Wishram (Pn4a.5, Pn 4a6, Pn4a10), and there is Dyk correspondence with Gordonm Marsh (x4a.2).
The Franz Boas Papers (Mss.B.B61) contains a small correspondence with Dyk, and Dyk is mentioned in several letters between Boas and Sapir.
Bibliography
American Anthropologist 74 (1976).
Dyk, Walter, Son Of Old Man Hat.(Lincioln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1938).
Genre(s)
- Dissertations.
- Field notes.
- Masters theses
Personal Name(s)
- Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972
- Haas, Mary R. , (Mary Rosamond), 1910-1996
- Hymes, Dell H.
- McGuff, Peter
- Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939
- Voegelin, C.F. (Charles Frederick), 1906-1986
- Wolf, J. G.
Subject(s)
- Indians of North America--Languages
- Wasco language
| Detailed Inventory | |||
Walter Dyk Collection | 1931-1956 | Request Collection | |
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
A Grammar of Wishram | 1933 | TMsS, 157p., 7p. notes | Box 1: Folder 1 Request File |
Dissertation, Yale University, 1933. General physical description: TMsS, 157p., 7p. notes | |||
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
Stress Accent in Wishram | 1933 | TMsS, 4p. (2 copies), 7p. | Box 1: Folder 2 Request File |
Two versions of a paper, with TMs comments (1p.) by Dell Hymes, 1955. Published in IJAL 22 (1956): 238-241. General physical description: TMsS, 4p. (2 copies), 7p. | |||
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
Theme Verbs | 1933 | TMsS, 7p. | Box 1: Folder 3 Request File |
Marginal notes by Edward Sapir. General physical description: TMsS, 7p. | |||
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
Verb Types in Wishram | 1931 | TMsS, 55p., 4p. notes | Box 1: Folder 4 Request File |
MS thesis, University of Chicago, 1931, with accompanying notes by Dell Hymes, ca.1955. General physical description: TMsS, 55p., 4p. notes | |||
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
Wishram Notes | n.d. | AMsS, 46p. | Box 1: Folder 5 Request File |
Haas, Mary R. , (Mary Rosamond), 1910-1996.
Wishram notes | ca.1933-1934 | AMsS, 74p., TMs 6p. | Box 1: Folder 6 Request File |
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." General physical description: AMsS, 74p., TMs 6p. | |||
Hymes, Dell H..
Sketch of a plan to combine data of Dyk, Frenchy, and Hymes | ca.1955 | TMsS and AMs, 7p. | Box 1: Folder 7 Request File |
Dissertation, Yale University, 1933. General physical description: TMsS and AMs, 7p. | |||
Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939.
ALS to Walter Dyk | 1933 Aug. 29 | ALS, 42p. | Box 1: Folder 8 Request File |
Detailed commentary on Dyk's dissertation, phonology. General physical description: ALS, 42p. | |||
McGuff, Peter.
Correspondence with Edward Sapir | 1906-1908 | TMsS, 157p., 7p. notes | Box 1: Folder 9 Request File |
Correspondence regarding McGuff's fieldwork on Wasco at Fort Simcoe, Washington, 1906-1908. General physical description: TMsS, 157p., 7p. notes | |||
Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939.
ALS to Pete McGuff | 1906 June 13 | 4p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
McGuff, Peter.
ALS to Edward Sapir | 1906 August 17 | 3p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939.
ALS to Pete McGuff | 1907 September 17 | 3p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939.
ALS to Pete McGuff | 1907 December 4 | 7p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
McGuff, Peter.
ALS to Edward Sapir | 1907 December 20 | 1p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
McGuff, Peter.
ALS to Edward Sapir | [1907 December] | 4p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
McGuff, Peter.
Wasco-Wishram notes | [1907 December] | 17p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
McGuff, Peter.
ALS to Edward Sapir | 1908 June 15 | 4p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939.
Wasco notes marginal to Boas'; Chinook vocabulary | [ca.1907-1908] | AMs, 26p. | Box 1: Folder 9 Request Item |
Voegelin, C.F. (Charles Frederick), 1906-1986.
Abstract of Walter Dyk's Dissertation, A Grammar of Wishram | 1951 | TMsS, 12p. | Box 1: Folder 10 Request File |
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." General physical description: TMsS, 12p. | |||
Wolf, J. G..
Wishram dictionary | ca.1955-1956 | TMsS, 38p. | Box 1: Folder 11 Request File |
"Compiled by Dr. J. G. Wolf from E. Sapir's matierlas, edited by E. Sapir." General physical description: TMsS, 38p. | |||
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
Wishram fieldnotes | ca.1931-1933 | Notebook, 54p. | Volume 1: Folder 2 Request File |
Dyk, Walter, 1899-1972.
Wishram fieldnotes | ca.1931-1933 | Notebook, 6p., 15p. loose notes | Volume 1: Folder 2 Request File |