Athapaskan Languages

Athabaskan languages

 or Athapaskan languages

Family of North American Indian languages. There are perhaps 200,000 speakers of Athabaskan languages. Northern Athabaskan includes more than 20 languages scattered across an immense region of subarctic North America from western Alaska to Hudson Bay and south to southern Alberta and British Columbia. Pacific Coast Athabaskan consisted of six languages, all now extinct or nearing extinction. Apachean consists of several closely related languages spoken in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, including Navajo and the various subdivisions of Apache. In the early 21st century, Navajo had some 150,000 speakers, far more than any other indigenous language of the U.S. or Canada.

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Athapaskan Languages 

(or Athabascan Languages), a group of languages which, until the European conquest, were spoken by the population of the interior regions of Alaska, the northwestern half of present-day Canada, and also parts of the territory of the present-day southwestern and southern states of the USA and northern Mexico.

There are nine subgroups: (1) Tanaina (Alaska); (2) Koyukon (Alaska); (3) Ingalik (Alaska); (4) Ahtena (Alaska); (5) Kutchin and Han (Alaska and Canada); (6) Tanana and Nabesnatana (Alaska), Carrier (British Columbia), Dogrib, Hare, Chipewyan, and Slave (Canada, from the Mackenzie River to Hudson Bay); (7) Beaver, Sarsi, Kaska, Sekani (to the west and southwest of Great Slave Lake in Canada); (8) Pacific Coast subgroup (California and Oregon)—Umpqua, Galice, Applegate, Chasta-Costa, Hupa, Tolowa, Mattole, Kato, Wailaki, Sinkyone, etc.; (9) Apachean subgroup (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila in northern Mexico), including Navaho (northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico) and the Apache languages. The languages of subgroups 1 to 7 are classed together under the term “northern Athapaskan languages” based on geographical distribution.

The Athapaskan languages belong to the Nadene family, along with the Eyak, Tlingit, and Haida languages (Pacific coast of Alaska and Canada); Eyak is often included in the Athapaskan languages. Some linguists propose a relationship between Nadene and the Sino-Tibetan languages. Athapaskan languages are spoken by no more than 250,000 people. These languages are characterized by a rich con-sonantism, including glottalized and breathy lateral consonants. Tone is phonemic. The agglutinative structure has traces of a root isolating system (the monosyllabic quality of morphemes, their weak lack of fusion, tones, etc.). The verb contains an obligatory set of prefixes (person and number of the subject and of objects, the spatial characteristics of the action, etc.) and optional suffixes. The noun has possessive prefixes (“my,” “thy,” etc.). Syntactic functions of the noun are expressed analytically.

REFERENCES

Petitot, E. Dictionnaire de la langue Dènè-Dindjiè. Paris, 1876.
Li, Fang-kuei. Mattole, an Athabaskan Language. Chicago, 1930.
Morice, A. G. The Carrier Language, vols. 1–2. Modling, 1932.
Studies in the Athapaskan Languages. Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1963.

A. B. DOLGOPOL’SKII