Lower Tanana language
Lower Tanana (also Tanana and/or Middle Tanana) is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken in Interior Alaska in the lower Tanana River villages of Minto and Nenana. Of about 380 Tanana people in the two villages, about 30 still speak the language. The Athabascan bands that formerly extended between the Salcha and the Goodpaster Rivers spoke a distinct dialect that can be termed the Middle Tanana language.
Dialects
- Toklat area dialect: (Tutlʼot)
- Minto Flats-Nenana River dialect: Minto (Menhti) and Nenana (Nina Noʼ )
- Chena River dialect: Chena Village (Chʼenoʼ )
- Salcha River dialect: Salcha (Sol Chaget)
Examples
- dena man
- trʼaxa woman
- setseya my grandfather
- setsu my grandmother
- xwtʼana clan
- ddheł mountain
- tu water
- sresr black bear
- bedzeyh caribou
- łiga dog
- beligaʼ his/her dog
- kʼwyʼ willow
- katreth mocassin
- trʼiyh canoe
- yoyekoyh Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
Bibliography
- Charlie, Teddy. 1992. Ode Setl'oghwnh Da': Long After I Am Gone. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. ISBN 1-55500-045-2
- Kari, James, Isabel Charlie, Peter John & Evelyn Alexander. 1991. Lower Tanana Athabaskan Listening and Writing Exercises. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.
- Tuttle, Siri. 1998. Metrical and Tonal Structures in Tanana Athabaskan. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington.