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Athabaskan or '''Athabascan''' (also '''Athapascan''' or '''Athapaskan''') is the name of a large group of closely related Native American peoples, also known as the '''Athabasca Indians''' or '''Athapaskes''', located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family. The Athabaskan family is the second largest family in North America in terms of number of languages and the number of speakers, following the Uto-Aztecan family which extends into Mexico. In terms of territory, only the Algic Language Family covers a larger area. The word ''Athabaskan'' is an in his 1836 (written 1826) classification of the languages of North America. He acknowledged that the name for these related languages was entirely his own individual preference, writing: :"I have designated them by the arbitrary denomination of Athabascas, which derived from the original name of the lake." (1836:116-7) LANGUAGES The 31 Northern Athabaskan languages are spoken throughout the interior of Alaska and the interior of northwestern Canada in the Yukon and Northwest Territories as well as in the provinces of British Columbia , Alberta , Saskatchewan and Manitoba . Several Athabaskan languages are Official Language s in the Northwest Territories, including Dene Suline , Dogrib or Tlicho , Gwich’in , and Slavey . The seven Pacific Coastal Athabaskan languages are spoken in southern Oregon and northern California . Isolated from the northern and coastal languages, the six Southern Athabaskan languages, including the different Apache peoples and Navajo , are spoken in the American Southwest and the northwestern part of Mexico . Eyak and Athabaskan together form a genetic grouping called ''Athabaskan-Eyak''. Tlingit is distantly related to this group to form the Na-Dené stock (also known as Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit). Family division Overview The Athabaskan language family has three main geographic groupings: Northern, Pacific Coast, and Southern. There is discussion of whether the Pacific Coast languages actually forms a valid genetic grouping. The Northern group is particularly problematic. Due to the failure of the usual criteria of shared innovation and systematic phonetic correspondences to provide well-defined subgroupings, the Athabaskan family (especially the Northern languages) has been called a "cohesive complex" by Michael Krauss (1973, 1982). Therefore, the ''Stammbaumtheorie'' model (family tree) of genetic classification may be inappropriate. The languages of the Southern branch are much more homogeneous and are the only clearly genetic subgrouping. Below is an outline of the family showing only the major branches of the family. This outline follows mostly the classification of Keren Rice as seen in Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999). # Southern Alaska # Central Alaska-Yukon # Northwestern Canada # Tsetsaut # Central British Columbia # Sarsi # Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai # Pacific Coast Athabaskan # Apachean Branches 1-7 are the Northern Athabaskan (areal) grouping. Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai (#7) has often been considered part of the Pacific Coast grouping, but a recent consideration by Krauss does not find it very similar to these languages. A different classification by Jeff Leer is the following (Tuttle & Hargus 2004:72-74): # Alaskan (Ahtna, Dena’ina, Deg Hit’an, Koyukon, Kolchan, Lower Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, Gwich’in, Han) # Yukon (Tsetsaut, N. Tutchone, S. Tutchone, Tagish, Tahltan, Kaska, Sekani, Dunneza) # British Columbia (Babine-Witsuwit’en, Dakelh, Chilcotin) # Eastern (Dene Suline, Slavey, Dogrib) # Southernly (Tsuut’ina, Apachean, Pacific Coast Athabaskan) At this time, the details of the Athabaskan family tree should be regarded as tentative. For detailed lists including languages, dialects, and subdialects, see the respective articles on the 3 major groups (that is, Northern Athabaskan , Pacific Coast Athabaskan , Southern Athabaskan ). Northern Athabaskan
: 1. Ahtna : 2. Dena’ina (also known as Tanaina)
: 3. Deg Hit’an (also known as Ingalik, Deg Xinag) : 4. Holikachuk (also known as Innoko) : 5. Koyukon : 6. Kolchan (also known as Upper Kuskokwim) : 7. Lower Tanana (also known as Tanana) : 8. Tanacross : 9. Upper Tanana : 10. Southern Tutchone : 11. Northern Tutchone : 12. Gwich’in (also known as Kutchin) : 13. Hän (also known as Han)
: A. Tahltan-Tagish-Kaska :: 14. Tagish :: 15. Tahltan :: 16. Kaska : 17. Sekani : 18. Dunneza (also known as Beaver) : B. Slave-Hare (Southern and Northern Slavey) :: 19. Slavey (also known as Slave) :: 20. Mountain :: 21. Bearlake :: 22. Hare : 23. Dogrib : 24. Dene Suline (also known as Chipewyan, Dëne Sųłiné, Dene Soun’liné)
: 25. Tsetsaut
: 26. Babine (also known as North Carrier) : 27. Dakelh (also known as Carrier) : 28. Chilcotin (also known as Tsilhqot’in) : 29. Nicola (also known as Stuwix)
: 30. Tsuut’ina (also known as Sarcee, Sarsi, Tsuu T’ina)
: 31. Kwalhioqua-Clatskanie (also known as Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanie) Pacific Coast Athabaskan
: 32. Hupa (also known as Hoopa-Chilula) : 33. Mattole-Bear River : 34. Eel River
: 35. Upper Umpqua : 36. Rogue River (also known as Tututni) : 37. Galice-Applegate : 38. Tolowa Southern Athabaskan (also known as Apachean)
: 39. Plains Apache (also known as Kiowa-Apache)
: A. Chiricahua-Mescalero :: 40. Chiricahua :: 41. Mescalero : 42. Navajo (also known as Navaho) : 43. Western Apache (also known as Coyotero Apache)
: 44. Jicarilla : 45. Lipan Areal list Below is a list of all of the Athabaskan languages and their geographic locations.
PROTO-ATHABASKAN Phonology A recent reconstruction of proto-Athabaskan consists of 40 consonants (Cook 1981; Krauss & Golla 1981; Krauss & Leer 1981; Cook & Rice 1989), as detailed below:
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