Tanacross language
Tanacross | |
---|---|
Neeʼaanděgʼ | |
Native to | United States |
Region | Alaska (middle Tanana River) |
Ethnicity | 220 Tanana (2007)[citation needed] |
Native speakers | <10 (2020)[1] |
Dené–Yeniseian?
| |
Latin script | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Alaska[2] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tcb |
Glottolog | tana1290 |
ELP | Tanacross |
Tanacross is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Tanacross (also Transitional Tanana) is an
Overview
The word Tanacross (from "
Tanacross is the ancestral language of the Mansfield-Kechumstuk and
In the late nineteenth century
from the present-day village of Tanacross. A telegraph station followed in 1902, and an Episcopal mission in 1909. Both the Mansfield-Kechumstuk and Healy Lake-Joseph Village bands eventually settled in Tanana Crossing, eventually shortened to Tanacross (McKennan 1959). The village was relocated across the river to its present location in the early 1970s, and most present-day Tanacross speakers live in or near the village of Tanacross.Etymology
The name Tanacross has only recently been applied to the language and still has limited currency outside academic circles. Many other
“In considering the Tanana River as a whole, however, the [Tanana] Crossing and Upper Tanana natives should be lumped together, for between the Crossing and Healy River occur a whole series of rapids which today make navigation exceedingly dangerous and in earlier days practically prevented it.” (23)
McKennan mistakenly assumes that the Tanana River was a major transportation corridor, when in fact the various Tanacross bands have never had a true
Osgood (1936) uses the term Tanana for the entire region of the Tanana River drainage below the Tok River to the confluence of the Tanana and
Tanacross is part of a large language/dialect complex, and the Tanacross linguistic region is bordered by several other closely related Athabaskan languages. To the northwest is
“The Tanana Crossing people have always been in much closer contact with the Indians of Copper River, the valley of the Tok [River] leading to the easy Mentasta Pass and thence down Slana River to the Copper. The Upper Tanana natives maintain that the Crossing dialect is much more similar to that of the Copper River than is their own.” (23)[7]
Dialectology
Until very recently Lower Tanana was spoken at Salcha (Saagescheeg), just west of the Tanacross language area near the mouth of the Salcha River. As might be expected, Salcha shares many features with Healy Lake, the westernmost dialect of Tanacross, though the two are readily distinguished as separate languages (in particular by the presence of high marked tone in Healy Lake). With the passing of the Salcha dialect, the nearest Lower Tanana villages are located more than one hundred miles downstream at Nenana and Minto, and the linguistic boundary between Tanacross and Lower Tanana is now even more distinct.
The Tanacross linguistic region is geographically small by Alaska Athabaskan standards and hence contains little dialectal variation. A small number of phonological features distinguish two major dialects. The Mansfield (Dihthâad)-Kechumstuk (Saages Cheeg) (MK) dialect of Tanacross (Dihthaad Xt'een Aandeg' - ″The Mansfield People's Language″, referring to the traditional village of
Status
As with all of the Athabaskan languages of Alaska, Tanacross is extremely endangered. Although most children have passive understanding of simple commands and phrases, most fluent speakers of Tanacross are at least fifty years old. Only among the oldest speakers is Tanacross the language of daily communication. Based on the age of the youngest speakers, Krauss (1997) estimates 65 speakers out of a total population of 220.[9] In spite of the relatively small number of speakers, the percentage of speakers out of the total population is quite high for an Alaska Athabaskan language. Outside Tanacross village proper the percentage is much lower. Although 1990 census figures place the combined populations of Dot Lake and Healy Lake at 117, Kari (p.c.) estimates fewer than four speakers at Healy Lake and perhaps two or three at Dot Lake.
In spite of its small size (population 140) and proximity to predominantly non-native community of Tok, Tanacross village maintains its own school, where Tanacross literacy is sometimes taught. In addition, most households in the village contain at least one fluent Tanacross speaker. Recently there has been an increase in interest in
Phonology
Tanacross is one of four Athabaskan
Vowels
There are six phonemic vowels:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High
|
i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | o |
Low
|
a |
The
Vowels may be marked for high (á), rising (ǎ), falling (â) or extra-high (á́) tone. Low tone is unmarked.
Consonants
The
Labial | Alveolar | Dental | Lateral | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive/ Affricate |
unspirated | t ⟨d⟩
|
t͜s ⟨dz⟩ | t͜θ ⟨ddh⟩ | t͜ɬ ⟨dl⟩ | t͜ʃ ⟨j⟩ | k ⟨g⟩ | ʔ ⟨'⟩ | |
aspirated | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | t͡sʰ ⟨ts⟩ | t͡θʰ ⟨tth⟩ | t͡ɬʰ ⟨tl⟩ | t͡ʃʰ ⟨ch⟩ | kʰ ⟨k⟩ | |||
ejective | tʼ ⟨t'⟩
|
t͡sʼ ⟨ts'⟩ | t͡θʼ ⟨tth'⟩ | t͡ɬʼ ⟨tl'⟩ | t͡ʃʼ ⟨ch'⟩ | kʼ ⟨k'⟩ | |||
Fricative | voiced | z ⟨z⟩ | ð ⟨dh⟩ | ɮ ⟨l⟩
|
ʒ ⟨zh⟩ | ɣ ⟨gh⟩ | |||
semi-voiced | z̥ ⟨s⟩
|
ð̥ ⟨th⟩
|
ɮ̊ ⟨ł⟩
|
ʒ̊ ⟨sh⟩
|
ɣ̊ ⟨x⟩
|
||||
voiceless | s ⟨s⟩ | θ ⟨th⟩ | ɬ ⟨ł⟩
|
ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | x ⟨x⟩ | h ⟨h⟩ | |||
Sonorant | voiced | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩
|
j ⟨y⟩ | |||||
voiceless | n̥ ⟨nh⟩ | j̊ ⟨yh⟩
|
Semi-voiced fricatives
One of the distinguishing features of Tanacross is the presence of so-called semi-voiced
łii | 'dog' |
shłǐig' | 'my dog' (ⓘ) |
Relationship to other languages
Tanacross is a member of the Athabaskan family of languages, a well-established genetic grouping whose members occupy three discontinuous areas of North America: the Northern group in northwestern Canada and Alaska, the Pacific Coast in northern California, Oregon, and southern Washington, and the Apachean group in the desert southwest of the continental United States. The seven Apachean languages include Navajo, the largest North American language in terms of number of speakers. Apachean is a very tightly related and well-defined branch.[11] The Pacific Coast group is much less closely related than Apachean and is perhaps more of a geographic subgroup containing perhaps six languages. Of these only Tolowa and Hupa are still spoken today, and these only by a handful of speakers. Of the roughly 24 Northern Athabaskan languages, eleven are spoken in Alaska, three of which straddle the border with Canada.
Given the available data, it is difficult to discern linguistic subgroups within Northern Athabaskan. This is certainly true for the languages of the Tanana River drainages, which form a continuum extending from Lower Tanana in the west (downriver) to Upper Tanana in the east (upriver). Tanacross itself was not defined as a distinct language until the late 1960s (Krauss 1973a). The dialectology of this area has not been completely unraveled, but it is clear that Tanacross of course shares many features with neighboring languages and dialects, especially the Mentasta dialect of Ahtna, the (now extinct) Salcha dialect of Lower Tanana, the Tetlin dialect of Upper Tanana, and the Han language.
However, Tanacross is distinguished most dramatically from neighboring languages by the development of Proto-Athabaskan (PA) constricted vowels into high tone. In contrast,
Early research
In addition to the strictly linguistic resources to be discussed below, Isaac (1988) and Simeone (1995) provide important cultural background on the Tanacross community. The former is an oral history told by Chief Andrew Isaac, the last traditional chief of Tanacross. Though much of the text has been translated into English, the translation maintains much of the speech style of the original Tanacross language. The text contains many references to Tanacross flora and fauna, as well as cultural items. Simeone's book is an ethnographic sketch written by an Episcopal lay worker who spent much of the 1970s living in Tanacross village. Ethnographies of the eastern Alaska Athabaskan region, though not specific to Tanacross, can be found in McKennan (1959) and Andrews (1975). De Laguna & McClellan's (1960) field notes also contain extensive ethnographic information.
The earliest written record by far of the Tanacross language is the “Copper River Kolchan” vocabulary recorded in Wrangell (1839).[12] This list was probably collected at Nuchek in Prince William Sound, but its character is unmistakably Tanacross. Another short (three typescript pages) word list was collected by J.T. Geoghegan (Geoghegan & Geoghegan 1904). David Shinen compiled a somewhat longer Tanacross word list from Mary Charlie and Oscar Isaac in Tanacross village,[13] and a portion of this list was later published under the heading “Nabesna” in Hoijer (1963). More substantive documentation of Tanacross began with exploratory fieldwork by Krauss, who first called it “transitional Tanana”.[14] In the early 1970s Nancy McRoy compiled some textual materials with speaker Mary Charlie[15] and a short wordlist containing about 400 items, mostly nouns,[16] as well as some basic literacy materials. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jeff Leer compiled further notes on grammatical paradigms[17] and phonological features,[18][19] including the three-way fricative voicing contrast. Marilyn Paul (1978) presents some notes compiled from a class taught by Leer at ANLC.[20] Ron Scollon transcribed and translated a collection of texts from speaker Gaither Paul using a revised orthography which indicates tone.[21] Kari has compiled a preliminary stem list based on information collected from several speakers in the 1980s, but tone is not marked.[22] Alice Brean has compiled lexical and paradigmatic information.[23] Minoura has compiled a short word list and information on tone.[24] In spite of the various sources of lexical documentation, Krauss (p.c.) estimates than only twenty percent of the extant body of lexical information has been documented by linguists.
During the early 1990s John Ritter of the Yukon Native Language Center (YNLC) began a comprehensive study of Tanacross phonology in the early 1990s and developed a practical orthography. Tanacross speakers Irene Solomon Arnold and Jerry Isaac have participated in literacy workshops in
References
- ^ "ANLPAC 2020 Report to the Governor and Legislature" (PDF). commerce.alaska.gov. 2020. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
- ^ Chappell, Bill (21 April 2014). "Alaska OKs Bill Making Native Languages Official". NPR.
- ^ Shinen, David C. 1958. A word list of the Nabesna dialect of the Alaska Athapaskans. Manuscript, Alaska Native Language Center Archives. Fairbanks.
- ^ Hoijer, Harry. 1963. The Athapaskan languages. Studies in the Athapaskan Languages, ed. by H. Hoijer, 1-29. (University of California Publications in Linguistics 29). Berkeley: University of California Press.
- ^ de Laguna, Frederica & Catherine McClellan. 1960. Tanacross fieldnotes. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Krauss, Michael E. 1973. Na-Dene. Linguistics in North America, ed. by T.A. Sebeok, 903-78. (Current Trends in Linguistics 10). The Hague: Mouton.
- ^ McKennan, Robert A. 1959. The Upper Tanana Indians. (Yale University Publications in Anthropology 55). New Haven: Yale University Department of Anthropology.
- ^ Krauss, Michael E. 1973. [Healy Lake Materials]. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Krauss, Michael E. 1997. The indigenous languages of the north: A report on their present state. Northern Minority Languages: Problems of Survival, ed. by H. Shoji & J. Janhunen, 1-34. (Senri Ethological Studies 44). Osaka, Japan: National Museum of Ethnology.
- ^ a b Holton, Gary. 2001. Fortis and lenis fricatives in Tanacross Athapaskan. International Journal of American Linguistics 67 (4): 396-414.
- ^ Hoijer, Harry. 1938. The Southern Athabaskan languages. American Anthropologist 40.75-87.
- ^ Wrangell, Ferdinand Petrovich von. 1839. Statistische und ethnographische Nachrichten über die Russische Besitzungen an der Norwestküste von Amerika, ed. by K.G. von Baer & G. von Helmersen, 101-03, 259. Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag.
- ^ Shinen, David C. 1958. A word list of the Nabesna dialect of the Alaska Athapaskans. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Krauss, Michael E. 1962. [Tanacross materials]. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Charlie, Mary & Nancy McRoy. 1972. [Tanacross Texts]. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ McRoy, Nancy. 1973. Beginning Tanacross Dictionary. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Leer, Jeff. 1982. Subject-classifier paradigms in Tanacross. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Leer, Jeff. 1977. Stem Syllable Development in Tanacross and Upper Tanana. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Leer, Jeff. 1982. Issues in Tanacross Orthography. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives.
- ^ Paul, Marilyn. 1978. [Tanacross Notes]. Manuscript, Alaska Native Language Archive
- ^ Paul, Gaither. 1979. The Story of How Dentalium Necklaces Came to the People. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Kari, James. 1991. Tanacross Stem List. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Brean, Alice & James Kari. 1991. [Tanacross Language Notes]. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Minoura, Nobukatsu. 1991. [Tanacross Fieldnotes]. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks. 1994. A comparative phonology of the Upper Tanana Athabaskan dialects. Languages of the North Pacific Rim, ed. by O. Miyaoka, 159-96. (Hokkaido University Publications in Linguistics 7.). Sapporo: Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Letters, Hokkaido University.
- ^ Solomon, Irene. 1994. Tanacross Athabaskan Language Lessons. Whitehorse: Yukon Native Language Centre.
- ^ Solomon, Irene. 1996. Tanacross Listening Exercises. Whitehorse: Yukon Native Language Centre.
- ^ Isaac, Jerry. 1997. Tanacross Listening Exercises. Whitehorse: Yukon Native Language Centre.
- ^ Solomon, Irene. 1997. Tanacross Diagnostics. Ms, Alaska Native Language Center Archives, Fairbanks.
- ^ Holton, Gary. 2000. The Phonology and Morphology of the Tanacross Athabaskan Language. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- ^ Holton, Gary. 2005. Pitch, tone and intonation in Tanacross. In Keren Rice & Sharon Hargus (eds.), Athabaskan Prosody, 249-75. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- ^ Arnold, Irene Solomon, Gary Holton & Richard Thoman. 2003. Tanacross Phrase and Conversation Lessons. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.
- ^ Arnold, Irene, Richard Thoman & Gary Holton. 2009. Tanacross Learners' Dictionary: Dihtâad Xt'een Iin Anděg Dínahtlǎa'. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.
- ^ Holton, Gary, and Rick Thoman. 2008. The Sounds of Tanacross. Archived from the original on 2018-11-15.