Tlingit language

language
name=Tlingit
nativename=Lingít
pronunciation=/ɬɪŋkɪ́t/
familycolor=Dené-Yeniseian
fam2=Na-Dené
states=USA, Canada
region=Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon, Washington
speakers=845 (Krauss 1995)
script=Latin (Tlingit variant)
iso2=tli|iso3=tli

The Tlingit language (pronEng|ˈklɪŋkɪt in English, "Lingít" IPA2|ɬɪŋkɪ́t 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 is 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 Bennett Lake at the end of the Chilkoot Trail ("Jilkhoot"). Except for these areas, Tlingit is not 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. [http://www.mla.org/map_data_states&mode=lang_tops&lang_id=866]

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, i.e. IPA|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 IPA|V̤ is symmetric with an aspirated consonant IPA|Cʰ, and a glottalized vowel IPA|V͡ʔ is symmetric with an ejective (glottalized) consonant IPA|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 IPA| [ʃ’] . Some speakers seem to be able to produce this phoneme, but have difficulty distinguishing it from "ch' " IPA| [tʃ’] . Tlingit is also notable for having several laterals but no voiced IPA| [l] , and no labials in most dialects, except for IPA| [m] and IPA| [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.

:

The numbers in the first column represent the usual concept of person, i.e. first, second, or third. Story and Naish identified a fourth person, but this term is inappropriate since they did not describe a clear separation between the so-called fourth person and the other impersonal pronominals.

The abbreviations in the first column represent, in order:
# singular
# plural
# singular
# plural
# recessive
# neutral
# salient
# reflexive
# reciprocal
# indefinite human
# indefinite nonhuman
# partitive

When analyzing a sentence, the pronominal type is given first, then the form (subject, object, independent) is given following a period. This uniquely represents the pronominal as a two dimensional unit. Thus 1SG.SUBJ is the first person singular subject pronominal, realized as "xhat". The sign RECIP does not uniquely identify one of the two reciprocal pronominals, but since they are both phonetically identical as "woosh", it is generally unnecessary to uniquely identify them.

There is also a notional zeroth person which can be of subject, object, or independent form. This is not realized in Tlingit, instead it is an empty placeholder for analysis.

ubject Pronominals

The subject pronominals are all incorporated into the verb. Thus when the subject is represented as a pronominal, the subject position of the sentence is empty.

Object Pronominals

Object pronominals are divided into three classes, the verbal, nominal, and postpositional.

The verbal object pronominals function similarly to the subject pronominals in that they preclude an explicit object when used.

The nominal object pronominals are similar in some respects to the possessive pronouns of English. They precede a noun and represent the object of the noun, typically implying possession of the noun.

Postpositional object pronominals function as objects to which postpositions are attached. They act as the object of a postposition in a manner similar to an ordinary noun suffixed with a postposition.

Directionals

Strictly speaking, the Tlingit directionals can be classified as nouns on the basis of their syntactic function. However, they form a distinct semantic set of nouns which indicate direction relative to some stated position. They also show stem variation depending locative suffixation, in particular with the allative suffix "-dei". These stem variants also occur with the adverb construction "N₁"-da-"N₂"-(i)n “"N₂" "N₁"-ward” where "N₂" is an anatomic noun and "N₁" is a directional stem.

:

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”, e.g. "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, i.e. 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, i.e. it cannot 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 is 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”. [How are 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.

entence-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...”

External links

* [http://www.tlingitlanguage.org Lingít Yoo X'atángi: The Tlingit Language]
* [http://www.alaskool.org/language/indexing/tlingindex.htm Tlingit Teaching and Learning Aids]
** [http://www.alaskool.org/language/dictionaries/akn/dictionary.asp Tlingit Noun Dictionary]
** [http://www.alaskool.org/language/dictionaries/akn/tlingit/information/Index_Verb.html Tlingit Verb Dictionary (unfinished)]
** [http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/literature/TongassTexts/Intro_TT.htm Tongass Text]
* [http://www.asna.ca/alaska Alaskan Orthodox Christian texts (Tlingit)]
* [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/russian/russch8.html The Russian Church and Native Alaskan Cultures: Preserving Native Languages]
* [http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/ynlc/YNLCinfo/Tlingit.html Yukon Native Language Centre]
* [http://home.bluemarble.net/~langmin/miniatures/tlingit.htm Talking about Beliefs: The Alaskan Tlingit language today]
* [http://www.anashinteractive.com Anash Interactive]

References

* Beck, David. (2001). “Conventionality and lexical classes”, pp. 19–26 in "Proceedings of WSCLA 5: The Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas", Gessner, Suzanne; Oh, Sunyoung; & Shiobara, Kayono (eds.). Volume 5 of "Working Papers in Linguistics". University of British Columbia: Vancouver, British Columbia.
* Bird, Sonya. (2001). “What is a word? Evidence from a computational approach to Navajo verbal morphology”, pp. 27–35 in "Proceedings of WSCLA 5: The Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas", Gessner, Suzanne; Oh, Sunyoung; & Shiobara, Kayono (eds.). Volume 5 of "Working Papers in Linguistics". University of British Columbia: Vancouver, British Columbia.
* Boas, Franz. (1917). "Grammatical notes on the language of the Tlingit Indians". University of Pennsylvania Museum anthropological publications.
* Cable, Seth. (2004). "A metrical analysis of syncope in Tlingit". Manuscript. [http://web.mit.edu/scable/www/work/papers/Tlingit-Syncope-11-21.pdf]
* Dauenhauer, Nora M.; & Dauenhauer, Richard (Eds.). (1987). "Haa Shuká, Our Ancestors". Number 1 in "Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature". University of Washington & Sealaska Heritage Foundation: Seattle, Washington.
* ——— (1990). "Haa Tuwunáagu Yís, For Healing Our Spirit". Number 2 in "Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature". University of Washington & Sealaska Heritage Foundation: Seattle, Washington.
* ——— (Eds.). (1994). "Haa Kusteeyí, Our Culture: Tlingit life stories". Number 3 in "Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature". University of Washington & Sealaska Heritage Foundation: Seattle, Washington.
* ——— (Eds.). (1995). “A Tlingit ceremonial speech by Willie Marks”, pp. 239-244 in Dürr, M; Renner, E.; & Oleschinski, W. (Eds.), "Language and Culture in Native North America: Studies in honor of Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow". Number 2 in "LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics". LINCOM: Munich, Germany. ISBN 3-89586-004-2.
* ——— (2000). "Beginning Tlingit", 4th ed. Sealaska Heritage Foundation Press: Juneau, Alaska. ISBN 0-9679311-1-8. First edition 1994.
* ——— (2002). "Lingít X'éinax Sá! Say it in Tlingit: A Tlingit phrase book". Sealaska Heritage Institute: Juneau, Alaska. ISBN 0-9679311-1-8.
* ——— (2002). "Intermediate Tlingit (draft)". Manuscript.
* Dauenhauer, Richard. (1974). "Text and context of Tlingit oral tradition". PhD dissertation. University of Wisconsin: Madison, Wisconsin.
* Dryer, Mattew. (1985). “Tlingit: An object-initial language?”, "Canadian Journal of Linguistics" 30:1–13.
* Goddard, Pliny Earle. (1920). “Has Tlingit a genetic relationship to Athapascan”, "International Journal of American Linguistics" 1:266–279.
* Leer, Jeffery A. (1979). "Proto-Athabaskan Verb Stem Variation, Part One: Phonology". Volume 1 in "Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers". Alaska Native Language Center: Fairbanks, Alaska.
* ——— (1990). Tlingit: A portmanteau language family? In P. Baldi (Ed.), "Linguistics change and reconstruction methodology" (pp. 73-98). Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany.
* ——— (1991). "The Schetic Categories of the Tlingit verb". PhD dissertation. University of Chicago Department of Linguistics: Chicago, Illinois.
* ——— (2000). “The negative/irrealis category in Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit”, ch. 6 pp. 101–138 in "The Athabaskan Languages: Perspectives on a Native American Language Family", Fernald, Theodore B. & Platero, Paul R. (eds.). Volume 24 in "Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics". Oxford University Press: Oxford, England. ISBN 0-19-511947-9.
* Leer, Jeff; Hitch, David; & Ritter, John. (2001). "Interior Tlingit Noun Dictionary: The dialects spoken by Tlingit elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia". Yukon Native Language Center: Whitehorse, Yukon. ISBN 1-55242-227-5.
* Naish, Constance M. (1966). "A syntactic study of Tlingit". Master’s dissertation. University of North Dakota.
* Naish, Constance M.; & Story, Gillian L. (1973). "Tlingit verb dictionary". Summer Institute of Linguistics: College, Alaska.
* ——— (1996). "The English-Tlingit dictionary: Nouns" (3rd ed.; H. Davis & J. Leer, Eds.). Sheldon Jackson College: Sitka, Alaska. (Revision of the Naish-Story dictionary of 1963.)
* Pinnow, Heinz-Jürgen. (1962). “Two problems of the historical phonology of Na-Dene languages”. "International Journal of American Linguistics", 28:162–166.
* ——— (1966). "Grundzüge einer historischen Lautlehre des Tlingit: ein Versuch". Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
* ——— (1976). "Geschichte der Na-Dene-Forschung". (Indiana : Beihefte ; 5). Berlin: Mann. ISBN 3-7861-3027-2
* Swanton, John. (1911). “Tlingit”, pp. 159–204 in "Handbook of American Indian Languages". U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C.