Tlingit language

The early history of Tlingit is poorly known, mostly because there was no written record until Robert de Lamanon collected numerals and five nouns during the La Pérouse expedition in 1786.^[8] The language appears to have spread northward from the Ketchikan–Saxman area towards Icy Bay^[9] since certain conservative features are reduced gradually from south to north.^[10] In fact, Tlingit northerly expansion into Eyak and Athabaskan territories was still taking place during the time after European contact.^[9][11]

The first Tlingit orthography and literacy program were created by the Russian Orthodox church during the Russian colonization of Alaska.^[12] However, following the 1867 purchase of Alaska by the United States, native languages were suppressed in favor of English language homogeneity and assimilation.^[12][13] It was not until the mid-20th century that the language literacy movement would regain ground,^[12] but the total number of speakers continued to decline.^[14] Beginning in the late 20th century, revitalization and preservation programs were also introduced.^[15]

Tlingit is currently classified as a distinct and separate branch of Na-Dene, an indigenous language family of North America.^[16] In 1915, Edward Sapir argued for its inclusion in the Na-Dene family,^[17] a claim that was subsequently debated by Franz Boas, P.E. Goddard, and many other prominent linguists of the time.^[18] Its inclusion in the family has proven controversial due to lack of common vocabulary despite shared phonological and grammatical features.^[19]

Studies in the late 20th century by Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow and Michael E. Krauss showed a strong connection to Eyak and hence to the Athabaskan languages, which led to consensus among American linguists that the Na-Dene family included Tlingit.^[19] Jeff Leer has proposed that the seeming lack of shared vocabulary between Tlingit and the Athabaskan languages can be explained by a process of hybridization within Tlingit.^[20]

Sapir initially proposed a connection between Tlingit and Haida,^[17] but the debate over Na-Dene gradually excluded Haida from the discussion. Haida is now considered an isolate,^[21] with some borrowing from its long proximity with Tlingit. However, some contemporary linguists still hold that Haida is part of the Na-Dene family, such as John Enrico, a specialist in Haida.^[22]

The first proposal linking Na-Dene and thus Tlingit to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia was made by Italian linguist Alfredo Trombetti in 1923.^[23] In the early 2000s, Edward Vajda presented empirical evidence for the existence of this super family, Dene–Yeniseian.^[24] Although support for the hypothesis has not been universal,^[25] it has been called "the first demonstration of a plausible genealogical link between languages of Eurasia and languages of the Americas".^[26]

The Tlingit language was traditionally spoken from near the mouth of the Copper River at Controller Bay down the open coast of the Gulf of Alaska and throughout almost all of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska.^[27][28] It is characterized by about four distinct dialects,^[29][30] but they are mostly mutually intelligible,^[11] indicating relatively recent territorial expansion.^[11][31] Almost all of the area where the Tlingit language is endemic is contained within the modern borders of Alaska. The exception is an area known as "Inland Tlingit"^[32] that extends up the Taku River and into northern British Columbia and the Yukon around Atlin Lake (Áa Tleen "Big Lake"^[33]) and Teslin Lake (Desleen < Tas Tleen "Big Thread"^[33]), as well as around Tagish Lake near the Chilkoot Trail (Jilḵoot).^[32] There is a small group of speakers (about 30) in Washington as well.^[34]

Tlingit is divided into roughly four major dialects,^[30] all of which are mutually intelligible:^[11]

• The Northern dialect is spoken in a vast area south from Yakutat (Yaakwdáat) and Lituya Bay (Ltu.aa) to Angoon (Aangóon) and Sitka (Sheetʼká), also covering the area around Hoonah (Xunaa) and Juneau (Dzántikʼi Héeni).^[42]
  • The Inland Tlingit dialect, a subdialect of Northern,^[43] is spoken in Canada around Atlin Lake and Teslin Lake.^[32]
• The Transitional dialect, having features "in-between" those of the Northern and Southern dialects, was historically spoken in and around Kake (Ḵéex̱ʼ 'Daylight'), and Wrangell (Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw 'Ḵaachx̱an's Little Lake').^[44]
• The Southern subdialects of Sanya (Saanyaa) and Heinya (Heinyaa) are spoken from Sumner Strait south to the Alaska-Canada border, excepting the southern end of Prince of Wales Island, which is the land of the Kaigani Haida (Kʼaaykʼaani).^[45]
• Tongass Tlingit, the most divergent of the dialects,^[46] was once spoken south of Ketchikan (Kichx̱áan) to the Portland Canal,^[47] but died in the 1990s.^[29]

Most dialects of Tlingit can be classified into two-tone (Northern and Transitional) and three-tone (Southern) systems.^[48] Tongass Tlingit, however, has no tone, but rather a four-way register contrast between short, long, glottalized, and "fading" vowels.^[49] (In the last type, the onset of the vowel is articulated normally but the release is murmured, essentially a rapid opening of the glottis once articulation is begun, resulting in fading of volume and pitch.)^[50]

Jeff Leer has shown that the Tongass vowel system can directly derive the tonal features other dialects,^[51] so Krauss has supported the conclusion that the register contrast in Tongass gave rise to the tonal systems.^[52] Additionally, the Tongass system is quite similar to both systems of vowel modifications for Eyak and the one reconstructed for Proto-Athabaskan,^[53] suggesting that they retained features from Proto-Na-Dene which instead developed into tonal systems in most of the Athabaskan languages and the other dialects of Tlingit.^[54]

Tlingit has a complex phonological system compared to Indo-European languages such as English or Spanish. It has an almost complete series of ejective consonants accompanying its stop, fricative, and affricate consonants. The only missing consonant in the Tlingit ejective series is [ʃʼ].^[55] The phonology is also typologically unusual because it has several laterals but no voiced [l] nor labials in most dialects, except for [m] and [p] in recent English loanwords.^[56]

The very first instance of written Tlingit is from the La Pérouse expedition in 1786, where for example, tleixʼ ('one') was transcribed as "keirrk".^[76] A more formal orthography based on the Cyrillic alphabet was created by the Russians during their colonization of Alaska.^[77] However, after Alaska was acquired by the United States, native language literacy was discouraged,^[12] and until the latter half of the 20th century, Tlingit was only written by linguists.^[78]

The most widespread orthography used today is based on the transcription systems of some of these linguists, particularly Constance Naish and Gillian Story.^[79] Like other popular writing systems, it uses the letters for voiced obstruents to represent unaspirated sounds; e.g., ⟨d⟩ for /t/. Uvular sounds are distinguished from velars by an underline; that is, ⟨k ḵ⟩ for /kʰ qʰ/. Typing an underline was straightforward on the typewriters of the 20th century, but it is no longer so on modern computers.^[80] Thus, an alternative "email" orthography was developed in the 1990s^[78] that replaces the underline with an appended ⟨h⟩; so, ⟨ḵ⟩ becomes ⟨kh⟩, and so on.^[80]

The Inland Tlingit orthography does not use vowel digraphs. Instead, short high vowels are marked with an acute accent, long high vowels are marked with a circumflex, and long low vowels are marked with a grave accent. Short low vowels are unmarked. So, Coastal Tlingit ⟨áa⟩ and ⟨aa⟩ are Inland ⟨â⟩ and ⟨à⟩ respectively. Coastal ⟨éi⟩ and ⟨ei⟩ are Inland ⟨ê⟩ and ⟨è⟩; Coastal ⟨ée⟩ and ⟨ee⟩ are Inland ⟨î⟩ and ⟨ì⟩; and Coastal ⟨óo⟩ and ⟨oo⟩ are Inland ⟨û⟩ and ⟨ù⟩.^[81]

Tlingit is often described as polysynthetic because a single verb phrase can be the equivalent of a complete English sentence.^[82][83] As such, verb morphology is highly complex,^[84] like in other Na-Dene languages.^[83] Nouns are clearly distinguished from verbs, unlike in the Salishan languages, which are also part of the Northwest Coast Sprachbund.^[85] Other word classes include pronouns, postpositions, relational nouns, and particles.^[86] Word order defaults to subject-object-verb, but it is flexible.^[87]

The Irish TV series An Klondike (2015–2017), set in Canada in the 1890s, contains Tlingit dialogue,^[112] as does the American comedy-drama Northern Exposure (1990–1995).^[113]

In 2023, the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes released the first of nine Tlingit-language children's books and animated videos. Titled Kuhaantí (lit. 'orphan'), it was released on October 27 and has no accompanying English translation, which Lance Twitchell said shows that "our literature can stand on its own."^[114][115]