Hän language
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Na-Dené
haa
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The Hän language (alternatively spelled as Haen) (also known as Dawson, Han-Kutchin, Moosehide) is a
Hän is in the Northern Athabaskan subgrouping of the
Phonology
Consonants
The consonants of Hän are listed below with IPA notation on the left, the standard orthography in ⟨brackets⟩:[5]
Labial | Inter- dental |
Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central | sibilant | lateral | ||||||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p ⟨b⟩ | tθ ⟨ddh⟩ | t ⟨d⟩
|
ts ⟨dz⟩ | tɬ ⟨dl⟩ | tʃ ⟨j⟩ | ʈʂ ⟨dr⟩ | k ⟨g⟩ | ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩ |
aspirated | (pʰ ⟨p⟩) | tθʰ ⟨tth⟩ | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | tsʰ ⟨ts⟩ | tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩ | tʃʰ ⟨ch⟩ | ʈʂʰ ⟨tr⟩ | kʰ ⟨k⟩ | ||
ejective | tθʼ ⟨tth’⟩ | tʼ ⟨t’⟩
|
tsʼ ⟨ts’⟩ | tɬʼ ⟨tl’⟩ | tʃʼ ⟨ch’⟩ | ʈʂʼ ⟨tr’⟩ | kʼ ⟨k’⟩ | |||
prenasalized | ᵐb ⟨mb⟩ | ⁿd ⟨nd⟩ | ⁿdʒ ⟨nj⟩ | |||||||
Fricative | voiceless | θ ⟨th⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | ɬ ⟨ł⟩
|
ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | ʂ ⟨sr⟩ | x ⟨kh⟩ | h ⟨h⟩ | ||
voiced | ð ⟨dh⟩ | z ⟨z⟩ | ɮ ⟨l⟩
|
ʒ ⟨zh⟩ | ʐ ⟨zr⟩ | ɣ ⟨gh⟩ | ||||
Sonorant | voiced | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩
|
l ⟨l⟩
|
j ⟨y⟩ | ɻ ⟨r⟩ | w ⟨w⟩ | |||
voiceless | n̥ ⟨nh⟩ | j̊ ⟨yh⟩
|
ɻ̥ ⟨rh⟩
|
w̥ ⟨wh⟩ |
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | short | long | |
Close | i ⟨i⟩ | iː ⟨ii⟩ | u ⟨u⟩ | uː ⟨uu⟩ | ||
Close-mid | e ⟨e⟩ | eː ⟨ee⟩ | o ⟨o⟩ | oː ⟨oo⟩ | ||
Mid | ə ⟨ë⟩ | əː ⟨ëë⟩ | ||||
Open | æ ⟨a⟩ | æː ⟨aa⟩ | ɑ ⟨ä⟩ | ɑː ⟨ää⟩ | ||
Diphthongs | æu ⟨aw⟩ æi ⟨ay⟩ ɑu ⟨äw⟩ eu ⟨ew⟩ ei ⟨ey⟩ iu ⟨iw⟩ oi ⟨oy⟩ |
Revitalization
There are about a dozen people, all elderly, who speak Hän as their native language,[6] though there is a growing second-language speaker community.
The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in (formerly known as the Dawson First Nation) in the Yukon Territory support the revitalization of Hän, and there are current efforts to revive the language locally. There is an effort to promote traditional skills and finding a balance between the way of the newcomer's which further promotes the development and revitalization of the language.[4] As of September 2022, there was only one fluent speaker of Hän in Yukon, a 95 year old elder.[2]
Since 1991, the Robert Service School in Dawson City has hosted the Hän Language program, and the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in supports adult language classes and bi-annual cultural gatherings.[5]
There are many other resources used to learn Hän, particularly online ones such as, FirstVoices and Yukon Native Learning Centre. These online learning language tools teach the tradition, culture, history, and the language of Hän.
Further reading
- Manker, Jonathan, and Tsuu T’ina Nation (2013). The Syntax of Sluicing in Hän. Dene Languages Conference, Calgary, Alberta.
- Manker, Jonathan (2014). Tone Specification and the Tone-Bearing Unit (TBU) in Hän Athabascan. WSLCA 19 St. John's, Newfoundland.
- O’Leary, M. (2017) The Interaction of Wh-movement and Topicalization in Hän. 2016 Dene Language Conference Proceedings, 81–88.
- Lehman, S. B. & O’Leary, M. (2019). Unexpected Athabaskan Pronouns. In Margit Bowler, Philip T. Duncan, Travis Major, Harold Torrence (eds.), UCLA Working Papers: Schuhschrift: Papers in Honor of Russell Schuh, 122–137.
Notes
- ^ Governor and Legislature
- ^ a b Galloway, Matt. "At 95, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation's last fluent Hän speaker hopes to pass on as much as he can". www.cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- ^ Chappell, Bill (21 April 2014). "Alaska OKs Bill Making Native Languages Official". NPR.
- ^ a b "Hän language, alphabet and pronunciation". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
- ^ a b c d e "Yukon Native Language Centre". ynlc.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-10-16. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
- ^ "Hän". Ethnologue: Languages of the World.
References
- Alaska Native Language Center. Alaska Native Language Center (accessed July 24, 2005).
- ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
External links
- Hän alphabet
- Alaska Native Language Center: Han
- Yukon Native Language Centre: Hän Archived 2020-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
- The Endangered Languages Project: Han
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Pacific Coast |
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Italics indicate extinct languages |
Indigenous |
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Sign languages | |
Non-Indigenous | |