Haida language

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Haida X̲aat Kíl
Spoken in:	Canada (Haida Gwaii / Queen Charlotte Islands), Alaska (Prince of Wales Island)
Total speakers:	First language: 35–50
Ranking:	Endangered
Language family:	language isolate  or Na-Dené   Haida
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language of:	Council of the Haida Nation
Regulated by:	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	none
ISO 639-3:	hai
Pre-European distribution of Haida
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Haida language (X̲aat Kíl) is the language of the Haida people. It contains at least 46 consonants and only three vowels^{[citation needed]}. Though sometimes thought to be a member of the Na-Dené language family, it is usually considered to be a language isolate.

It is extremely endangered, with only 35–50 living speakers, all of whom are over the age of 70.

Currently Haida citizens and friends in all three dialect communities are working to reactivate the language. In Skidegate aging speakers gather on a daily basis to work on the southern or Skidegate dialect and have produced a series of recordings. In Masset the group is younger and are working to reintegrate the northern or Masset dialect in their daily lives. In Alaska the community has built a web based language tool complete with on line recordings of the Kaigani dialect.

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Epiglottal	Glottal
			central	lateral
Plosive	plain	b/b/b   [b̥]	d/d/d   [d̥]			g/g/g   [g̊]	ĝ/G/r   [ɢ̥]		'/7/7   [ʔ]
	aspirated	p/p/p   [pʰ]	t/t/t   [tʰ]			k/k/k   [kʰ]	ḵ/q/q   [qʰ]
	ejective	p'/p'/p'  [p̕]	t'/t'/t'  [t̕]			k'/k'/k'  [k̕]	ḵ'/q'/q'  [q̕]
Affricate	lenis			dl/dl/dl  [d̥͡ɫ]	j/j/j  [d̥͡ʒ̊]
	fortis		ts/ts/ts  [t͡s]	tl/tl/tl  [t͡ɬʰ]	ch/ts/ts  [t͡ʃ]			g̱/r/–  [ʡ͡ʜ]
	ejective		ts'/ts'/ts'  [t͡s̕]	tl'/tl'/tl'  [t͡ɬ̕]
Fricative	voiceless		s/s/s  [s]	hl/hl/hl  [ɬ]	x/c/c  [ç]		x̂/X/x  [χ]	x̱/x/–  [ʜ]	h/h/h  [h]
Nasal	plain	m/m/m  [m]	n/n/n  [n]			ng/ng/ng  [ŋ]
	glottalized	m'/m'/m'  [mˀ]	n'/n'/n'  [nˀ]
Approximant	plain	w/w/w  [w]		l/l/l  [ɫ]	y/y/y  [j]
	glottalized	w'/w'/w'  [wˀ]		l'/l'/l'  [lˀ]	y'/y'/y'  [jˀ]

• Instead of an epiglottal fricative, the Masset dialect uses an epiglottal trill.
• Inside words the plain stops are voiced.
• At the end of words the aspirated stops lose their aspiration to become simple fortes.
• Technically dl is not an affricate (it is released into an approximant rather than into a fricative), and the "palatal" affricates are palato-alveolar.
• [t͡ʃ] occurs only at the beginning of syllables, while [t͡s] does not occur there. They are the same phoneme. Therefore Enrico's orthographies use the same symbol, ts, for both.
• The difference between ch/initial ts and j is very subtle – both are voiceless and unaspirated. See the Fortis and lenis article for what the difference could be.
• The ANLC orthography uses hyphens to distinguish, for example, n-g [ng] from ng [ŋ] and t-' [tʔ] from t' [t̕].

[edit] External links

• Haida language
• Listen to the sounds of Haida
• Raven, a story in the Haida language
• Haida writing systems