Haida language
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| Haida X̲aat Kíl |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Canada (Haida Gwaii / Queen Charlotte Islands), Alaska (Prince of Wales Island) | |
| Total speakers: | First language: 35–50 | |
| Ranking: | Endangered | |
| Language family: | language isolate or Na-Dené Haida |
|
| Writing system: | Latin alphabet | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | Council of the Haida Nation | |
| Regulated by: | No official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | none | |
| ISO 639-3: | hai | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Haida language (X̲aat Kíl) is the language of the Haida people. It contains at least 46 consonants and only three vowels[citation needed]. Though sometimes thought to be a member of the Na-Dené language family, it is usually considered to be a language isolate.
It is extremely endangered, with only 35–50 living speakers, all of whom are over the age of 70.
Currently Haida citizens and friends in all three dialect communities are working to reactivate the language. In Skidegate aging speakers gather on a daily basis to work on the southern or Skidegate dialect and have produced a series of recordings. In Masset the group is younger and are working to reintegrate the northern or Masset dialect in their daily lives. In Alaska the community has built a web based language tool complete with on line recordings of the Kaigani dialect.
[edit] Sounds
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Epiglottal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | ||||||||
| Plosive | plain | b/b/b [b̥] | d/d/d [d̥] | g/g/g [g̊] | ĝ/G/r [ɢ̥] | '/7/7 [ʔ] | |||
| aspirated | p/p/p [pʰ] | t/t/t [tʰ] | k/k/k [kʰ] | ḵ/q/q [qʰ] | |||||
| ejective | p'/p'/p' [p̕] | t'/t'/t' [t̕] | k'/k'/k' [k̕] | ḵ'/q'/q' [q̕] | |||||
| Affricate | lenis | dl/dl/dl [d̥͡ɫ] | j/j/j [d̥͡ʒ̊] | ||||||
| fortis | ts/ts/ts [t͡s] | tl/tl/tl [t͡ɬʰ] | ch/ts/ts [t͡ʃ] | g̱/r/– [ʡ͡ʜ] | |||||
| ejective | ts'/ts'/ts' [t͡s̕] | tl'/tl'/tl' [t͡ɬ̕] | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s/s/s [s] | hl/hl/hl [ɬ] | x/c/c [ç] | x̂/X/x [χ] | x̱/x/– [ʜ] | h/h/h [h] | ||
| Nasal | plain | m/m/m [m] | n/n/n [n] | ng/ng/ng [ŋ] | |||||
| glottalized | m'/m'/m' [mˀ] | n'/n'/n' [nˀ] | |||||||
| Approximant | plain | w/w/w [w] | l/l/l [ɫ] | y/y/y [j] | |||||
| glottalized | w'/w'/w' [wˀ] | l'/l'/l' [lˀ] | y'/y'/y' [jˀ] | ||||||
- Instead of an epiglottal fricative, the Masset dialect uses an epiglottal trill.
- Inside words the plain stops are voiced.
- At the end of words the aspirated stops lose their aspiration to become simple fortes.
- Technically dl is not an affricate (it is released into an approximant rather than into a fricative), and the "palatal" affricates are palato-alveolar.
- [t͡ʃ] occurs only at the beginning of syllables, while [t͡s] does not occur there. They are the same phoneme. Therefore Enrico's orthographies use the same symbol, ts, for both.
- The difference between ch/initial ts and j is very subtle – both are voiceless and unaspirated. See the Fortis and lenis article for what the difference could be.
- The ANLC orthography uses hyphens to distinguish, for example, n-g [ng] from ng [ŋ] and t-' [tʔ] from t' [t̕].
[edit] External links
- Haida language
- Listen to the sounds of Haida
- Raven, a story in the Haida language
- Haida writing systems
Categories: Articles to be expanded since January 2007 | All articles to be expanded | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Endangered languages | Language isolates | Languages of Canada | Indigenous languages of Alaska | Indigenous languages of the North American Northwest Coast | Northern Northwest Coast Sprachbund (North America) | Northwest Coast Sprachbund (North America) | Haida
