Holikachuk language

Holikachuk is a highly endangered Athabaskan language formerly spoken at the village of Holikachuk (Hiyeghelinhdi) on the Innoko River in central Alaska. In 1962 residents of Holikachuk relocated to Grayling on the lower Yukon River. Holikachuk is intermediate between the Deg Xinag and Koyukon languages, linguistically closer to Koyukon but socially much closer to Deg Xinag. Though it was recognized by scholars as a distinct language as early as the 1840s, it was only definitively identified in the 1970s.^[1] Of about 180 Holikachuk people, only about 5 spoke the language in 2007.^[2]

James Kari compiled a short dictionary of Holikachuk in 1978, but Holikachuk remains one of the least documented Alaska Native languages.^[3]

Examples

^[4]

• łoogg fish
• łoogg dood mininh iligh November (literally: 'month when the eels come [swim]')
• giggootth scales
• q’oon’ fish eggs
• nathdlod Indian ice-cream'

References

1. ^ Krauss, Michael E. 1973. Na-Dene. Linguistics in North America, ed. by T.A. Sebeok, 903-78. (Current Trends in Linguistics 10). The Hague: Mouton.
2. ^ Krauss, Michael E. 2007. Native languages of Alaska. In: The Vanishing Voices of the Pacific Rim, ed. by Osahito Miyaoko, Osamu Sakiyama, and Michael E. Krauss. Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Kari, James. 1978. Holikachuk Noun Dictionary (Preliminary). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. ERIC ED172528
4. ^ http://www.subsistence.adfg.state.ak.us/TechPap/tp289.pdf

External links

• Holikachuk Athabascan. Alaska Native Language Center. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.