Hän language

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Hän
Spoken in:	Canada, United States
Region:	Yukon Territory, Alaska
Total speakers:	10
Language family:	Dené-Yeniseian  Na-Dené   Athabaskan-Eyak    Athabaskan     Northern Athabaskan      Hän
Writing system:	Latin (Dené variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	ath
ISO 639-3:	haa
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Hän language is a Native American endangered language spoken in only two places: Eagle, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon. There are only a few fluent speakers left (perhaps about 10), all of them elderly.

It is a member of the Athabaskan language family, which is part of the larger Na-Dené family. The name of the language is derived from the name of the people, "Hän Hwëch'in", which in the language means "people who live along the river", the river being the Yukon. There are currently efforts to revive the language locally.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 2 External links 3 Bibliography 4 See also

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Consonants

The consonants of Hän in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

		Bilabial	Interdental	Alveolar	Lateral	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	b  [p]		d  [t]			dr  [ʈ]	g  [k]	’  [ʔ]
	aspirated	(p)  [pʰ]		t  [tʰ]			tr  [ʈʰ]	k  [kʰ]
	ejective			t’  [tʼ]			tr’  [ʈʼ]	k’  [kʼ]
Affricate	voiceless		ddh  [tθ]	dz  [ʦ]	dl  [tɬ]	dj  [ʧ]
	aspirated		tth  [tθʰ]	ts  [ʦʰ]	tl  [tɬʰ]	ch  [ʧʰ]
	ejective		tth’  [tθʼ]	ts’  [ʦʼ]	tl’  [tɬʼ]	ch’  [ʧʼ]
Fricative	voiced		dh  [ð]	z  [z]		zh  [ʒ]	zr  [ʐ]	gh  [ɣ]
	voiceless		th  [θ]	s  [s]	ł  [ɬ]	sh  [ʃ]	sr  [ʂ]	kh  [x]	h  [h]
Nasal	voiced	m  [m]		n  [n]
	voiceless			nh  [n̥]
	voiced stop	mb  [mb]		nd  [ⁿd]
	voiced affricate					nj  [ⁿʤ]
Approximant	voiced	w  [w]			l  [l]	y  [j]	r  [ɻ]
	voiceless	wh  [ʍ]				yh  [ȷ̊]	rh  [ɻ̥]

[edit] Vowels

• short
  • a [a]
  • ä [ɑ]
  • e [e]
  • ë [ə]
  • i [i]
  • o [o]
  • u [u]
• long
  • aa [aː]
  • ää [ɑː]
  • ee [eː]
  • ëë [əː]
  • ii [iː]
  • oo [oː]
  • uu [uː]
• diphthongs
  • aw [au]
  • ay [ai]
  • äw [ɑu]
  • ew [eu]
  • ey [ei]
  • iw [iu]
  • oy [oi]
• nasal vowels are marked by an ogonek accent, e.g., ą
• low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g., à
• rising tone is marked with a circumflex accent, e.g., â
• falling tone is marked with a caron (or háček), e.g., ǎ
• high tone is never marked, e.g., a

[edit] External links

• New dictionary seeks to preserve endangered Han language
• Hän (Yukon Native Language Center - includes alphabet)
• Han (ANLC)
• Ethnologue: Han

[edit] Bibliography

• Alaska Native Language Center. Alaska Native Language Center website: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/ (accessed July 24, 2005).
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

[edit] See also

• Han (North American people)