| Hän | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Canada, United States | |
| Region: | Yukon Territory, Alaska | |
| Total speakers: | 10 | |
| Language family: | Na-Dené Athabaskan-Eyak Athabaskan Northern 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. | ||
Image:Chief Isaac of Hän.jpg
Chief Isaac of the Han people
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 |
Phonology
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] | ||||||
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
- short
External links
- New dictionary seeks to preserve endangered Han language
- Hän (Yukon Native Language Center - includes alphabet)
- Han (ANLC)
- Ethnologue: Han
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.
