"Athabaskan" redirects here. For any of the ships named HMCS Athabaskan, see HMCS Athabaskan. For the ethnic group in Alaska, see Alaskan Athabaskans.
Athabaskan
Dene
Geographic distribution
Western North America
Linguistic classification
Dené–Yeniseian?
Na-Dene
Athabaskan–Eyak
Athabaskan
Proto-language
Proto-Athabaskan
Subdivisions
Northern Athabaskan
Pacific Coast Athabaskan
Southern Athabaskan
ISO 639-2 / 5
ath
Glottolog
atha1247
Geographic distribution of the Athabaskan languages
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Athabaskan (/ˌæθəˈbæskən/ATH-ə-BASK-ən; 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 4,022,000 square kilometres (1,553,000 sq mi).
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 (Moose Cree: Āðapāskāw '[where] there are reeds one after another') in Canada. Cree is one of the Algonquian languages and therefore not itself an Athabaskan language.[1] 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."[2][full citation needed]
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.[3]Ethnologue uses Athapaskan in naming the language family and individual languages.[4]
Although the term Athabaskan is prevalent in linguistics and anthropology, there is an increasing trend among scholars to use the terms Dené 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.[5]
^Bright, William (2004). Native American Place Names of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg. 52
^Albert Gallatin, 1836:116–17.
^Alaska Native Language Center: "The Name Athabascan" Archived June 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^Ethnologue: Language Family Trees – Athapaskan
^"Dené (Athabaskan) Languages Conference". Retrieved 18 March 2020.
and 25 Related for: Athabaskan languages information
reconstructions of the proto-languages, indicating that these languages might be related. The internal structure of the Athabaskanlanguage family is complex, and...
Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskanlanguages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New...
Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskanlanguage family. California Athabaskan Hupa (dining'-xine:wh...
Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskanlanguages. Dene is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" has two uses:...
is the geographically most widespread Athabascan language spoken in Alaska. The Athabaskanlanguage is spoken along the Koyukuk and the middle Yukon River...
River. It is one of the four languages belonging to the California Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskanlanguages. Most Kato speakers were bilingual...
[nɑ̀ːpèːhópìz̥ɑ̀ːt]) is a Southern Athabaskanlanguage of the Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of...
"revitalize the language." It is one of the four languages belonging to the Oregon Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskanlanguages. Dialects were...
Together with three other closely related languages (Lower Rogue River Athabaskan, Upper Rogue River Athabaskan or Galice-Applegate and Upper Umpqua or...
-anterior class (sh-like sounds). Such patterns are found in the Dene (Athabaskan) languages such as Navajo (Young and Morgan 1987, McDonough 2003), Tahltan...
"raspberry" is animate, but "strawberry" is inanimate. In Navajo (Southern Athabaskan) nouns are classified according to their animacy, shape, and consistency...
only some languages then allow morphological causativization.: 208 Koyukon (Northern Athabaskan; Alaska) was found to be the only language in the survey...
Tanacross (also Transitional Tanana) is an endangered Athabaskanlanguage spoken by fewer than 60 people in eastern Interior Alaska. The word Tanacross...
is an extinct Athabaskanlanguage spoken by the people of the Round Valley Reservation of northern California, one of four languages belonging to the...
(Russian: атабаски Аляски, атапаски Аляски) are Alaska Native peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the...
Hungarian and Finnish in Europe), the Yeniseian languages (linked to Turkic and to the Athabaskanlanguages of North America), Yukaghir, Nivkh of Sakhalin...
The Athabaskanlanguage family is divided into the Northern Athabaskan, Pacific Coast Athabaskan and Southern Athabaskan groups. The full Bible has been...
closest relatives of Eyak are the Athabaskanlanguages. The Eyak–Athabaskan group forms a basic division of the Na-Dené language family, the other being Tlingit...
Eskimo–Aleut languages Amharic: Bible translations into Amharic Amis: Bible translations into the languages of Taiwan § Amis Apache (Southern Athabaskan): Bible...
The Tanana Athabaskans, Tanana Athabascans or Tanana Athapaskans are an Alaskan Athabaskan peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They...
needed] Eyak-Athabaskan, Athabaskan, Northern Athabaskan. Ahtna is one of the eleven Athabaskanlanguages native to Alaska. The Ahtna language comes from...
are the Athabaskanlanguages, include the languages of central and eastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, as well as the Apachean languages of the Southwestern...
documented." It is one of the languages of the Oregon Athabaskan (Tolowa–Galice) cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskanlanguages. The vowel sounds are [ɪ]...
the Na-Dene languages family and it is closely related to Jicarilla language, which is also part of the Eastern Southern Athabaskanlanguages. In 1981,...
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