Lower Tanana language
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other Lower Tanana (also Tanana and/or Middle Tanana) is an endangered language spoken in Interior Alaska in the lower Tanana River villages of Minto and Nenana. Of about 380 Tanana people in the two villages, about 30 still speak the language. As of 2010, “Speakers who grew up with Lower Tanana as their first language can be found only in the 250-person village of Minto.”[1] It is one of the large family of Athabaskan languages, also known as Dené.
The Athabaskan (or Dené) bands who formerly occupied a territory between the Salcha and the Goodpaster rivers spoke a distinct language that linguists term the Middle Tanana language.
Dialects
- Toklat area dialect (Script error: No such module "Lang".)
- Minto Flats-Nenana River dialect: Minto (Script error: No such module "Lang".) and Nenana (Script error: No such module "Lang".)
- Chena River dialect: Chena Village (Script error: No such module "Lang".)
- Salcha River dialect: Salcha (Script error: No such module "Lang".)
Vocabulary samples
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “man”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “woman”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “my grandfather”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “my grandmother”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “clan”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “mountain”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “black bear”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". "brown bear"
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “caribou”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “dog”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “his/her dog”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “willow”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “moccasin”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “canoe”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “Northern Lights”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “trail”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “river”
- Script error: No such module "Lang". “girl” (Middle Tanana)
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Vowel sounds in Tanana are Script error: No such module "IPA"..
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA link | |
| Mid | Template:IPA link | ||
| Open | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link |
Songs
In a 2008–2009 project, linguist Siri Tuttle of the University of Alaska's Native Language Center “worked with elders to translate and document song lyrics, some on file at the language center and some recorded during the project.”[2]
“The Minto dialect of Tanana ... allows speakers to occasionally change the number of syllables in longer words.”[2]
Notes
Bibliography
- Charlie, Teddy. 1992. Ode Setl'oghwnh Da': Long After I Am Gone, Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. Template:ISBN
- Kari, James, Isabel Charlie, Peter John & Evelyn Alexander. 1991. Lower Tanana Athabaskan Listening and Writing Exercises, Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.
- Tuttle, Siri. 1998. Metrical and Tonal Structures in Tanana Athabaskan, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington.
- Tuttle, Siri. 2003. Archival Phonetics: Tone and Stress in Tanana Athabaskan. University of Alaska Fairbanks.