Upper Kuskokwim language

The Upper Kuskokwim language (also called Kolchan or Goltsan or Dinak'i) is an Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené language family. It is spoken by the Upper Kuskokwim people in the Upper Kuskokwim River villages of Nikolai, Telida, and McGrath, Alaska. About 40 of a total of 160 Upper Kuskokwim people (Dichinanek’ Hwt’ana) still speak the language.

A practical orthography of the language was established by Raymond Collins, who in 1964 began linguistic work at Nikolai.

Since 1990s, the language has also been documented by a Russian linguist Andrej Kibrik.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	sibilant	lateral
Plosive/ Affricate	plain		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
	aspirated		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
	ejective		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Fricative	voiceless			Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
	voiced			Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
Sonorant	voiceless		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
	voiced	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr	Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr					Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr
	glottalized		Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr					Template:IPAlink Template:Angbr

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Near-close	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Open	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr

/ɪ/ may range to either [ɪ] or mid as [ə].

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns are divided into two classes: those which can be possessed, but do not have to be (such as clothing, animals and lake names) and those which are always possessed (such as body parts).

For the former group, some nouns that are possessed have a change in spelling and pronunciation when they are possessed. For example, the prefix "si-" indicates "my".

Possessive Noun Changes

Upper Kuskokwim	English
	fishnet
	my fishnet
	your fishnet
	his/her fishnet

However, other nouns that may be possessed do not undergo any sound changes, and instead the possession is indicated either by the separate possessive word , or by the prefix . For example, (birch tree) becomes (my birch tree) and (trail) becomes (Template:Gloss).

Verbs can be changed into nouns with the suffix . This also causes sound changes in some verbs.

Adjectives

There are few adjectives that modify nouns in Upper Kuskokwim. Adjectives are added after nouns, e.g. (Template:Gloss).

Upper Kuskokwim	English
	big
	small
	dried
	narrow

Syntax

Upper Kuskokwim uses SOV word order. It is a partially inflectional and partially agglutinative language, and a pro-drop language.

Bibliography

• Alaska Native Language Center. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.

Links

• Upper Kuskokwim Language and Culture Preservation (website in development)
• Dinak'i | Upper Kuskokwim Dictionary iOS app

Template:Asbox