Athabaskan languages

Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan (also spelled Athabascan, Athapaskan or Athapascan, and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Coast and Southern (or Apachean). Kari and Potter (2010:10) place the total territory of the 53 Athabaskan languages at .
Chipewyan is spoken over the largest area of any North American native language, while Navajo is spoken by the largest number of people of any native language north of Mexico.
The word Athabaskan is an anglicized version of a Cree language name for Lake Athabasca ('[where] there are reeds one after another') in Canada. Cree is one of the Algonquian languages and therefore not itself an Athabaskan language. The name was assigned by Albert Gallatin in his 1836 (written 1826) classification of the languages of North America. He acknowledged that it was his choice to use this name for the language family and the associated ethnic groups: "I have designated them by the arbitrary denomination of Athabascas, which derived from the original name of the lake."
The four spellings—Athabaskan, Athabascan, Athapaskan, and Athapascan—are in approximately equal use. Particular communities may prefer one spelling over another (Krauss 1987). For example, the Tanana Chiefs Conference and Alaska Native Language Center prefer the spelling Athabascan. Ethnologue uses Athapaskan in naming the language family and individual languages.
Although the term Athabaskan is prevalent in linguistics and anthropology, there is an increasing trend among scholars to use the terms and Dené languages, which is how many of their native speakers identify it. They are applying these terms to the entire language family. For example, following a motion by attendees in 2012, the annual Athabaskan Languages Conference changed its name to the Dené Languages Conference.
Languages
Linguists conventionally divide the Athabaskan family into three groups, based on geographic distribution:
Northern Athabaskan languages
Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages
Southern Athabaskan languages or "Apachean"
The 32 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. Five Athabaskan languages are official languages in the Northwest Territories, including Chipewyan, Dogrib or , Gwich'in (Kutchin, Loucheux), and the Northern and Southern variants of Slavey.
The seven or more Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages are spoken in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. These include Applegate, Galice, several Rogue River area languages, Upper Coquille, Tolowa, and Upper Umpqua in Oregon; Eel River, Hupa, Mattole–Bear River, and Tolowa in northern California; and possibly Kwalhioqua-Clatskanie in Washington.
The seven Southern Athabaskan languages are isolated by considerable distance from both the Pacific Coast languages and the Northern languages. Reflecting an ancient migration of peoples, they are spoken by Native Americans in the American Southwest and the northwestern part of Mexico. This group comprises the six Southern Athabaskan languages and Navajo.
The following list gives the Athabaskan languages organized by their geographic location in various North American states, provinces and territories (including some languages that are now extinct). Several languages, such as Navajo and Gwich'in, span the boundaries: these languages are repeated by location in this list. For alternative names for the languages, see the classifications given later in this article.
Alaska: Ahtna, Deg Hit'an, Dena'ina/Tanaina, Gwich'in/Kutchin, Hän, Holikachuk, Koyukon, Lower Tanana, Middle Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, Upper Kuskokwim
Yukon: Gwich'in/Kutchin, Hän, Kaska, Mountain, Tagish, Northern Tutchone, Southern Tutchone, Upper Tanana
Northwest Territories: Bearlake, Dëne Sųłiné/Chipewyan, Gwich'in, Hare, Mountain, Slavey, Tłįchǫ Yatiì/Dogrib
Nunavut: Dëne Sųłiné
British Columbia: Babine–Witsuwit'en, Bearlake, Beaver, Chilcotin, Dakelh/Carrier, Hare, Kaska, Mountain, Nicola Athapaskan, Sekani/Tsek'ene, Slavey, Tagish, Tahltan, Tsetsaut
Alberta: Beaver, Dëne Sųłiné, Slavey, Tsuut'ina/Sarcee
Saskatchewan: Dëne Sųłiné
Washington: Kwalhioqua-Clatskanai (Willapa, Suwal)
Oregon: Applegate, Clatskanie, Galice, Rogue River (Chasta Costa, Euchre Creek, Tututni, Upper Coquille), Tolowa, Upper Umpqua
California: Eel River, Hupa, Mattole–Bear River, Kato, Tolowa
Utah: Navajo
Colorado: Jicarilla, Navajo
Arizona: Chiricahua, Navajo, Western Apache
New Mexico: Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, Navajo
Texas: Mescalero, Lipan
Oklahoma: Chiricahua, Plains Apache
Sonora: Chiricahua
Chihuahua: Chiricahua
Alaskan Athabaskan languages
External classification
Eyak and Athabaskan together form a genealogical linguistic grouping called Athabaskan–Eyak (AE) – well-demonstrated through consistent sound correspondences, extensive shared vocabulary, and cross-linguistically unique homologies in both verb and noun morphology.
Tlingit is distantly related to the Athabaskan–Eyak group to form the Na-Dene family, also known as Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit (AET). With Jeff Leer's 2010 advances, the reconstructions of Na-Dene (or Athabascan–Eyak–Tlingit) consonants, this latter grouping is considered by Alaskan linguists to be a well-demonstrated family. Because both Tlingit and Eyak are fairly remote from the Athabaskan languages in terms of their sound systems, comparison is usually done between them and the reconstructed Proto-Athabaskan language. This resembles both Tlingit and Eyak much more than most of the daughter languages in the Athabaskan family.
Although Ethnologue still gives the Athabaskan family as a relative of Haida in their definition of the Na-Dene family, linguists who work actively on Athabaskan languages discount this position. The Alaska Native Language Center, for example, takes the position that recent improved data on Haida have served to conclusively disprove the Haida-inclusion hypothesis. Haida has been determined to be unrelated to Athabaskan languages.
A symposium in Alaska in February 2008 included papers on the Yeniseian and Na-Dené families. Edward Vajda of Western Washington University summarized ten years of research, based on verbal morphology and reconstructions of the proto-languages, indicating that these languages might be related.
Internal classification
The internal structure of the Athabaskan language family is complex, and its exact shape is still a hotly debated issue among experts. The conventional three-way split into Northern, Pacific Coast, and Southern is essentially based on geography and the physical distribution of Athabaskan peoples rather than sound linguistic comparisons. Despite this inadequacy, current comparative Athabaskan literature demonstrates that most Athabaskanists still use the three-way geographic grouping rather than any of the proposed linguistic groupings given below, because none of them has been widely accepted. This situation will presumably change as both documentation and analysis of the languages improves.
Overview
Besides the traditional geographic grouping described previously, there are a few comparatively based subgroupings of the Athabaskan languages. Below the two most current viewpoints are presented.
The following is an outline of the classification according to Keren Rice, based on those published in Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999). It represents what is generously called the "Rice–Goddard–Mithun" classification (Tuttle & Hargus 2004:73), although it is almost entirely due to Keren Rice.
Southern Alaska (Dena'ina, Ahtna)
Central Alaska–Yukon (Deg Hit'an, Holikachuk/Kolchan, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Lower Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, N. Tutchone, S. Tutchone, Gwich'in, Hän)
Northwestern Canada (Tagish, Tahltan, Kaska, Sekani, Dunneza/Beaver, Slavey, Mountain, Bearlake, Hare, Tłįchǫ Yat'iì/Dogrib, Dëne Sųłiné/Chipewyan)
Tsetsaut
Central British Columbia (Babine–Witsuwit'en, Dakelh/Carrier, Chilcotin, Nicola?)
Tsuut'ina/Sarsi
Kwalhioqua–Clatskanai
Pacific Coast Athabaskan (Upper Umpqua, Tututni, Galice–Applegate, Tolowa, Hupa, Mattole, Eel River, Kato)
Apachean (Navajo, White Mountain Apache, Tonto Apache, San Carlos Apache, Mescalero–Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Plains)
Branches 1–7 are the Northern Athabaskan (areal) grouping. Kwalhioqua–Clatskanai (#7) was normally placed inside the Pacific Coast grouping, but a recent consideration by Krauss (2005) does not find it very similar to these languages.
A different classification by Jeff Leer is the following, usually called the "Leer classification" (Tuttle & Hargus 2004:72–74):
Alaskan (Ahtna, Dena'ina, Deg Hit'an, Koyukon, Holikachuk/Kolchan, Lower Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, Gwich'in, Hän)
Yukon (Tsetsaut, N. Tutchone, S. Tutchone, Tagish, Tahltan, Kaska, Sekani, Dunneza/Beaver)
British Columbia (Babine–Witsuwit'en, Dakelh/Carrier, Chilcotin)
Eastern (Dëne Sųłiné/Chipewyan, Slavey, Mountain, Bearlake, Hare, Tłįchǫ Yat'iì/Dogrib)
Southerly Outlying (Tsuut'ina/Sarsi, Apachean, Pacific Coast Athabaskan, Kwalhioqua–Tlatskanai)
Neither subgrouping has found any significant support among other Athabaskanists. Details of the Athabaskan family tree should be regarded as tentative. As Tuttle and Hargus put it, "we do not consider the points of difference between the two models ... to be decisively settled and in fact expect them to be debated for some time to come." (Tuttle & Hargus 2004:74)
The Northern group is particularly problematic in its internal organization. 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 group – has been called a "cohesive complex" by Michael Krauss (1973, 1982). Therefore, the Stammbaumtheorie or family tree model of genetic classification may be inappropriate. The languages of the Southern branch are much more homogeneous and are the only clearly genealogical subgrouping.
Debate continues as to whether the Pacific Coast languages form a valid genealogical grouping, or whether this group may instead have internal branches that are tied to different subgroups in Northern Athabaskan. The position of Kwalhioqua–Clatskanai is also debated, since it may fall in either the Pacific Coast group – if that exists – or into the Northern group. The records of Nicola are so poor – Krauss describes them as "too few and too wretched" (Krauss 2005) – that it is difficult to make any reliable conclusions about it. Nicola may be intermediate between Kwalhioqua–Tlatskanai and Chilcotin.
Similarly to Nicola, there is very limited documentation on Tsetsaut. Consequently, it is difficult to place it in the family with much certainty. Athabaskanists have concluded that it is a Northern Athabaskan language consistent with its geographical occurrence, and that it might have some relation to its distant neighbor Tahltan. Tsetsaut, however, shares its primary hydronymic suffix ("river, stream") with Sekani, Beaver, and Tsuut'ina – PA *-ɢah – rather than with that of Tahltan, Tagish, Kaska, and North and South Tutchone – PA *-tuʼ (Kari 1996; Kari, Fall, & Pete 2003:39). The ambiguity surrounding Tsetsaut is why it is placed in its own subgroup in the Rice–Goddard–Mithun classification.
For detailed lists including languages, dialects, and subdialects, see the respective articles on the three major groups: Northern Athabaskan, Pacific Coast Athabaskan, Southern Athabaskan. For the remainder of this article, the conventional three-way geographic grouping will be followed except as noted.
Northern Athabaskan
The Northern Athabaskan languages are the largest group in the Athabaskan family, although this group varies internally about as much as do languages in the entire family. The urheimat of the Athabaskan family is most likely in the Tanana Valley of east-central Alaska. There are many homologies between Proto-Athabaskan vocabulary and patterns reflected in archaeological sites such as Upward Sun, Swan Point and Broken Mammoth (Kari 2010). The Northern Athabaskan group also contains the most linguistically conservative languages, particularly Koyukon, Ahtna, Dena'ina, and Dakelh/Carrier (Leer 2008).
Southern Alaskan subgroup
1. Ahtna
2. Dena'ina (also known as Tanaina, Kenaitze)
Central Alaska–Yukon subgroup
3. Deg Xinag (also known as Deg Hitʼan, Ingalik (deprecated))
4. Holikachuk (also known as Innoko)
5. Koyukon (also known as Denaakkʼe, Tenʼa)
6. Upper Kuskokwim (also known as Kolchan)
7. Lower Tanana and Middle Tanana (also known as Tanana)
8. Tanacross
9. Upper Tanana
10. Southern Tutchone
11. Northern Tutchone
12. Gwich'in (also known as Kutchin, Loucheux, Tukudh)
13. Hän (also known as Han)
Northwestern Canada subgroup
A. Tahltan–Tagish–Kaska (also known as "Cordilleran")
14. Tagish
15. Tahltan (also known as Nahanni)
16. Kaska (also known as Nahanni)
17. Sekani (also known as Tsekʼehne)
18. Dane-zaa (also known as Beaver)
B. Slave–Hare
19. Slavey (also known as Southern Slavey)
20. Mountain (Northern Slavey)
21. Bearlake (Northern Slavey)
22. Hare (Northern Slavey)
23. Dogrib (also known as Tłįchǫ Yatiì)
24. Dene Suline (also known as Chipewyan, Dëne Sųłiné, Dene Soun'liné)
Very little is known about Tsetsaut, and for this reason it is routinely placed in its own tentative subgroup.
Tsetsaut subgroup
25. Tsetsaut (also known as Tsʼetsʼaut, Wetalh)
Central British Columbia subgroup (also known as "British Columbian" in contrast with "Cordilleran" = Tahltan–Tagish–Kaska)
26. Babine–Witsuwit'en (also known as Northern Carrier, Bulkley Valley/Lakes District)
27. Dakelh (also known as Carrier)
28. Chilcotin (also known as Tsilhqot'in)
The Nicola language is so poorly attested that it is impossible to determine its position within the family. It has been proposed by some to be an isolated branch of Chilcotin.
29. Nicola (also known as Stuwix, Similkameen)
Sarsi subgroup
30. Tsuut'ina (also known as Sarcee, Sarsi, Tsuu T'ina)
The Kwalhioqua–Clatskanie language is debatably part of the Pacific Coast subgroup, but has marginally more in common with the Northern Athabaskan languages than it does with the Pacific Coast languages (Leer 2005). It thus forms a notional sort of bridge between the Northern Athabaskan languages and the Pacific Coast languages, along with Nicola (Krauss 1979/2004).
Kwalhioqua–Clatskanie subgroup (also called Lower Columbia Athapaskan)
31. Kwalhioqua–Clatskanie (also known as Kwalhioqua–Tlatskanie or Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai)
Pacific Coast Athabaskan
California Athabaskan subgroup
32. Hupa (also known as Hupa-Chilula, Chilula, Whilkut)
33. Mattole–Bear River
34. Eel River (also known as Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, Sinkyone)
35. Kato (also known as Cahto)
Oregon Athabaskan subgroup
36. Upper Umpqua (also known as Etnemitane)
37a. Lower Rogue River and Upper Coquille (also known as Tututni, Chasta Costa, Euchre Creek and Coquille)
37b. Upper Rogue River (also known as Galice/Taltushtuntede, Applegate/Dakubetede)
38. Tolowa (also known as Smith River, Chetco, Siletz Dee-ni)
Southern Athabaskan
Plains Apache subgroup
39. Plains Apache (also known as Kiowa-Apache)
Western Apachean subgroup
A. Chiricahua–Mescalero
40. Chiricahua
41. Mescalero
42. Navajo (also known as Navaho)
43. Western Apache (also known as Coyotero Apache)
Eastern Apachean subgroup
44. Jicarilla
45. Lipan
Sicoli & Holton (2014)
Using computational phylogenetic methods, Sicoli & Holton (2014) proposed the following classification for the Athabaskan languages based exclusively on typological (non-lexical) data. However, this phylogenetic study was criticized as methodologically flawed by Yanovich (2020), since it did not employ sufficient input data to generate a robust tree that does not depend on the initial choice of the "tree prior", i.e. the model for the tree generation.
(Yeniseian)
(Tlingit–Eyak)
South Pacific Coast Athabaskan (California)
(unnamed clade)
Tsetsaut
Upper Kuskokwim
Ahtna
Dena'ina
West Alaska (Koyukon)
Deg Xinag
Holikachuk, Koyukon
North Pacific Coast (Oregon)
Alaska-Canada-2
Gwich’in
Dogrib
North Slavey
Carrier, Dane-zaa (Beaver)
Plains-Apachean
Sarsi
Southern Athabaskan
Alaska-Canada-1
Tanana
Upper Tanana
Lower Tanana, Tanacross
Northwestern Canada
Hän
South Slavey, Kaska
Dene, Northern Tutchone, Southern Tutchone
Proto-Athabaskan
Proto-Athabaskan is the reconstructed ancestor of the Athabaskan languages.
See also
Broken Slavey, a trade language based on Slavey, French, and Cree.
Dené–Yeniseian languages
Loucheux Pidgin, another trade language based on at least Dëne Sųłiné (Chipewyan) and Gwich'in (Loucheux).
References
Bibliography
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California Indian Library Collections Project. California Athapaskan Bibliography
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Leer, Jeff. 2010. The Palatal Series in Athabascan-Eyak-Tlingit, with an Overview of the Basic Sound Correspondences. In The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, p. 168-193. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology.
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Sapir, Edward. 1931. "The concept of phonetic law as tested in primitive languages by Leonard Bloomfield". In S. A. Rice (ed.), Methods in social science: A case book, 297–306. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Sapir, Edward, & Victor Golla. 2001. "Hupa Texts, with Notes and Lexicon". In Victor Golla & Sean O'Neill (eds.), Collected Works of Edward Sapir, vol. 14, Northwest California Linguistics, 19–1011. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Saville-Troike, Muriel. 1985. On variable data and phonetic law: A case from Sapir's Athabaskan correspondences. International Journal of American Linguistics 51(4). 572–74.
Sturtevant, William C. (ed.). 1978–present. Handbook of North American Indians, vols. 1–20. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Vols. 1–3, 16, 18–20 not yet published.
Vajda, Edward. 2010. "A Siberian Link with Na-Dene Languages". In The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, 33–99. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology.
Vajda, Edward J. (2011). Oxford Bibliographies Online: "Dene-Yeniseian" .
Further reading
Leer, Jeff. 1992. Na-La-Dene cognate sets. Item CA965L1992b. Ms. (March 17, 1992), Alaska Native Language Archive.
Leer, Jeff. 1996. Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon. Item CA965L1996. Ms., Alaska Native Language Archive.
Leer, Jeff. 2008. Recent advances in AET comparison. Paper prepared for the Dene-Yeniseian Symposium. Fairbanks, Feb. 26, 2008. Item CA965L2008b. Ms., Alaska Native Language Archive.
External links
Pan-Dene Comparative Lexicon (PanDeneComPlex; formerly the Pan-Athapaskan Comparative Lexicon )
Alaska Native Language Center
Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Athabaskan Satellites & ASL Ion-Morphs
Yukon Native Language Center
Athapascan Bibliography
California Athapascan
ATHAPBASCKAN-L mailing list for Athabaskan linguistics
First Nations languages in Canada
Indigenous languages of North America
Indigenous languages of the North American Plains
Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest
Indigenous languages of the North American Subarctic
Languages of the United States
Na-Dene languages