Haida is an indigenous language of the Pacific Northwest Coast, spoken in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Its speaker population has collapsed from an estimated 15,000 in 1774 to roughly 13 native speakers as of the late 2010s and early 2020s, nearly all of them elderly, following epidemics after European contact and later residential school policies that suppressed the language. Haida is generally considered a language isolate, though the linguist John Enrico has argued for a relationship with the Na-Dene family, a proposal that remains contested because early loanwords complicate the supporting evidence. UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger classifies Haida as critically endangered.
Facts
Disputed
Proto-Language StatusNo settled proto-language: Haida is generally considered a language isolate, though a Na-Dene relationship has been proposed and disputed 1 Generally treated as a language isolate, but the linguist John Enrico has argued for a relationship to the Na-Dene family; the counterargument is that early loanwords complicate the supporting evidence, so the field has not settled the question. RegionThe Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, and Prince of Wales Island, Alaska 1 Speaker Count Sources
1. Wikipedia: Haida Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, paragraph 1: region clause
spoken in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of western Canada and on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska
Lead section: classification paragraph
Today, Haida is generally considered to be a language isolate. However, this theory is not universally accepted; for example, Enrico (2004) argues that Haida does in fact belong to the Na-Dene family, though early loanwords make the evidence problematic.
Infobox: Native speakers field
Native speakers: 105 (2021 census)
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