Everything about The Tlingit Language totally explained
The
Tlingit language (in English,
Lingít in Tlingit) is spoken by the
Tlingit people of
Southeast Alaska and Western
Canada. It is a branch of the
Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very
endangered, with less than 140 native speakers still living, all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast
Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and its culture.
History
The history of Tlingit is poorly understood, mostly because there's no written record until first contact with Europeans around the 1790s, and even then it remains sparse and irregular until the early 20th century. The language appears to have spread northward from the
Ketchikan–
Saxman area towards the
Chilkat region, since certain conservative features are reduced gradually from south to north. The shared features between the
Eyak language found around the
Copper River delta and
Tongass Tlingit near the
Portland Canal are all the more striking for the distances that separate them, both geographic and linguistic.
Classification
Tlingit is currently classified as a distinct and separate branch of the
Na-Dené family of North American languages, with its closest relative being
Eyak.
Edward Sapir (1915) argued for its inclusion in the Na-Dené family, a claim which was subsequently debated by
Franz Boas (1917),
P.E. Goddard (1920), and many other linguistic luminaries of the time. Studies in the late 20th century by
Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow (1962, 1968, 1970, int. al.) and
Michael Krauss (1964, 1965, 1969, int. al.) showed a strong connection to Eyak and hence to
Athabaskan languages, and this relationship is now widely accepted.
A connection to
Haida was initially proposed by Sapir, but the debate over Na-Dené gradually excluded Haida from the discussion. Haida is now considered an
isolate with some borrowing through long proximity with Tlingit, however Haida linguist
John Enrico has recently presented (2004) new arguments which have reopened the debate.
Geographic distribution
The Tlingit language is distributed from near the mouth of the
Copper River down the open coast of the
Gulf of Alaska and throughout almost all of the islands of the
Alexander Archipelago in
Southeast Alaska. It is characterized by four or five distinct but mostly mutually intelligible dialects, for which see below. Almost all of the area where the Tlingit language is endemic is contained within the modern borders of
Alaska except for an area known as
Inland Tlingit which extends up the
Taku River and into northern
British Columbia and the
Yukon Territory around the
Atlin (
Áa Tleen “Big Lake”) and
Teslin (
Desleen <
Tas Tleen “Big Thread”) lake districts, as well as a concentration around
Lake Bennett at the end of the
Chilkoot Trail (
Jilkhoot). Except for these areas, Tlingit isn't found in
Canada, although Tlingit legend tells that groups of Tlingit once inhabited the
Stikine,
Nass, and
Skeena river valleys during their migrations from the interior. There is a small group of speakers (some 85) in
Washington State as well.
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Dialects
Tlingit is divided into roughly five major dialects, all of which are essentially mutually intelligible, at least with some patience between listener and speaker. The northernmost dialect is arguably not a distinct dialect, but is nevertheless called the
Yakutat (
Yakhwdaat) dialect after its principal town. The Northern dialect is spoken in an area south from
Lituya Bay (
Litu.aa) to
Frederick Sound. The Transitional dialect, which is a two-tone dialect like the Northern but which has phonological features of the Southern, is historically spoken in the villages of
Petersburg (
Gántiyaakw Séedi “Steamboat Canyon”),
Kake (
Khéixh' “Daylight”), and
Wrangell (
Khaachxhana.áak'w “Khaachxhan’s Little Lake”), and in the surrounding regions, although it has almost disappeared. The similarly moribund Southern dialects of Sanya and Heinya are spoken from
Sumner Strait south to the Alaska-Canada border, excepting
Annette Island which is the reservation of the
Tsimshian people, and the southern end of
Prince of Wales Island which is the land of the
Kaigani Haida (
K'aayk'aani). The fourth major dialect is the
Inland Tlingit dialect spoken in Canada around
Atlin Lake and
Teslin Lake. The Tongass Tlingit dialect was once spoken in the Cape Fox area south of
Ketchikan, but has recently died with its last speakers in the 1990s.
The various dialects of Tlingit can be classified roughly into two-tone and three-tone systems. The tone values in two-tone dialects can be predicted in some cases from the three-tone values, but not the reverse. This fact led to the hypothesis that the three-tone dialects were older and that the two-tone dialects evolved from them. However
Jeff Leer’s discovery of the Tongass dialect in the late 1970s upset this proposal of linguistic evolution. In place of tone, Tongass Tlingit features a four way contrast between short, long, glottalized, and fading vowels. (“Fading” here means that the onset of the vowel is articulated normally but the release is
murmured, essentially a rapid opening of the glottis once articulation is begun.) Further research showed that the Tongass vowel system was adequate to predict the tonal features of both the two-tone and three-tone dialects, but that none of the tonal dialects could be used to predict vocalic feature distribution in Tongass Tlingit. Thus Tongass Tlingit is the most conservative of the various dialects of Tlingit, preserving contrasts which have been lost in the other dialects.
The similarity of fading and glottalized vowels between Tongass Tlingit and
Coastal Tsimshian led to ideas that the two could be related. However Krauss and Leer (1981, p. 165) point out that the fading vowels in Coastal Tsimshian are the surface realization of
underlying sequences of vowel and glottalized sonorant, for example VʔC. This is in contradistinction to the glottal modifications in Tongass Tlingit which Leer argues are instead symmetric with the modifications of the consonantal system. Thus a fading vowel V̤ is symmetric with an aspirated consonant Cʰ, and a glottalized vowel V͡ʔ is symmetric with an ejective (glottalized) consonant C’. This implies then that the two systems are only coincidentally similar and have no familial relationship. Leer (1978) speculated that the maintenance of the pretonal system in Tongass Tlingit was caused by the proximity of its speakers around the Cape Fox area near the mouth of the
Portland Canal to Coastal Tsimshian speakers just to the south.
Phonology
Tlingit, like many North American aboriginal languages, has a rich and complex
phonological system. It is famous for having an almost complete series of
ejective consonants accompanying its stop, fricative, and affricate consonants. The only missing ejective consonant in the Tlingit series is [ʃ’]. Some speakers seem to be able to produce this
phoneme, but have difficulty distinguishing it from
ch' [tʃ’]. Tlingit is also notable for having several
laterals but no voiced [l], and no
labials in most dialects, except for [m] and [p] in recent English
loanwords.
Consonants
Consonants in the popular orthography are given in the following table, with IPA equivalents in brackets. Marginal or historical phonemes are given in parentheses.
»
Verbs
» See main article: Tlingit verb
Particles
Particles function as neither noun nor verb. They are restricted to positions relative to phrases in the sentence.
Focus particles
The focus particles are particles which follow the left periphery (“forephrase” per Leer) of a sentence. The Naish-Story term for them is “post-marginals”. Many may be suffixed with a demonstrative (
-yá,
-hé,
-wé,
-yú), also they may be combined with the interrogative (
-gé). Focus particles are stylistically written as separate words, although phonetically they may be indivisible from the preceding utterance.
sá — wh-question
gé — dubitative, unlikelihood, “perhaps”, “maybe, “it would seem...”
á — focus
ágé — interrogative (< á + gé)
ásé — discovery, understanding of previously unclear information, “oh, so...”
ásgé — second hand information, “I hear...”, “they say...” (< ásé + gé)
khu.aa — contrastive, “however”
xháa – softening, “you see”
shágdéi — dubitative, likelihood, “perhaps”, “probably”
dágáa — emphatic assertion, “indeed”, “for sure”
shéi — mild surprise
gwáa, gu.áa — strong surprise
gwshéi, gushéi — rhetorical interrogative, request for corroboration, “I wonder”, “perhaps”
óosh — hypothetical, “as if”, “if only”, “even if”
The combination of the focus á with the demonstratives gives the frequently used particles áyá and áwé, and the less common áhé and áyú. Combination of the interrogative ágé with the demonstratives gives the confirmative particles ákwé and ákyá (ák-hé and ákyú are uncommon), used to elicit a yes/no response from the listener.
The interrogative ágé also usually contracts to ág before tsú “also”, for example ág tsú “also?” < ágé + tsú.
The particle sá is obligatory in forming wh-question phrases. It can be combined with a demonstrative, with the dubitative, the rhetorical interrogative, and the emphatic assertion, as in the list below.
sáwé (< sá + áwé), sáyá, ... — focused question, “... is that?”
sgé (< sá + gé) — dubitative question, “maybe?”, “perhaps?”
ságwshéi — “I wonder?”
sdágáa (< sá + dágáa) — “(what) on earth?”, “really?”
Phrasal particles
Phrasal particles may occur after focus particles that occur with or without demonstrative finals. The following are postphrasal particles, thus they may only occur after the phrase that they modify.
tsá — “only then”
tsú — “also”
s'é — “first”, “really!”
déi — “now”, “this time”
x'wán — “be sure to”
tsé — “be sure not to”
Except for x'wán and tsé, the above may occur after the focus particles.
The following are prephrasal particles, for example they occur before the phrase that they modify. Naish and Story call these “pre-marginals”.
ch'a — “just”, “the very”
ch'as — “only”, “just”
ch'ú — “even”
tlaxh — “very”
Mobile particles
These particles may occur before or after any phrase in a clause.
tlei — “just,” “simply,” “just then”
déi — “already,” “by now”
tsu — “again”, “still”, “some more”
Compare the mobile particle tsu with the postphrasal particle tsú. Both the sentence káaxwei tsu eetéenaxh xhat yatee “I need more coffee” and the sentence káaxwei tsú eetéenaxh xhat yatee “I also need coffee” are acceptable. However the sentence *tsú káaxwei eetéenaxh xhat yatee is syntactically inadmissible because the particle tsú is postphrasal, for example it can't precede the phrase it modifies, in this case the noun phrase káaxwei. The corresponding sentence with the tsu particle in front, tsu káaxwei eetéenaxh xhat yatee “I need coffee again/still” is in contrast syntactically acceptable. Thus a Tlingit listener will recognize the tsu particle in a phrase-initial position without confusion but tone is necessary to distinguish it in a phrase-final position. For this reason the tsu particle is often used prephrasally although it's syntactically admitted in either position. Thus the song name Tsu Héidei Shugaxhtootaan could also be héidei tsu shugaxhtootaan, but placing the tsu in front has the advantage of unambiguity, and thus seems more euphonious to native speakers.
Note that déi is a homonym with the noun déi “path, way, road”. [Howare these differentiated in speech?]
The particle tlei is easily confused with tléil “no, not”, but as with the tsu/tsú pair the tone makes them unambiguous.
Sentence-initial particles
These particles may only occur at the front of a sentence. Naish-Story term these “clause marginals”.
tléil, l — negative, “not”
gwál — dubitative, “perhaps”
gu.aal — optative, “hopefully”
khaju, xhaju — contrary, “actually”, “in fact”
khashde — “I thought...”Further Information
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