Language Families
Na-Dene
nah-deh-NAY (/nɑːdɪˈneɪ/)
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A family of Native American languages including the Athabaskan languages, Eyak and Tlingit, spoken across northwestern North America and, in the Athabaskan branch, as far south as the American Southwest, where Navajo is the most widely spoken indigenous language north of Mexico. Haida was formerly grouped with Na-Dene but is now generally treated as an unrelated language isolate, and a minority of specialists have proposed linking Na-Dene itself to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia as a wider Dene-Yeniseian family.
Facts
RegionAlberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Alaska, parts of Oregon, northern California, and the American Southwest 1 Speaker CountNo single source gives a consolidated family total. Dominated by Navajo (~170,000 speakers, the most spoken indigenous language north of Mexico); the remainder adds the much smaller other Athabaskan branches and Tlingit, each in the thousands or fewer, as a rough aggregate. Disputed
Proto-Language StatusProto-Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit is broadly accepted; reconstruction beyond that core, toward a hypothetical Dene-Yeniseian ancestor, is not. 1 The core family (Athabaskan, Eyak and Tlingit) is broadly accepted; Haida, once included, is now generally classified as an unrelated isolate, and Edward Sapir's own proposal linking Na-Dene to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia remains a minority hypothesis pending further comparative work. Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Na-Dene Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction; External Classification sectionQuote, Introduction; External Classification section
Haida was formerly included but is now generally considered a language isolate
1. Wikipedia: Na-Dene Languages
Wikimedia FoundationFamily Division sectionQuote, Family Division section
Na-Dene consists of two branches, Tlingit and Athabaskan–Eyak
1. Wikipedia: Na-Dene Languages
Wikimedia FoundationExternal Classification sectionQuote, External Classification section
Some linguists have proposed a genetic relationship between Na-Dene and the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia, termed Dene–Yeniseian. However, this proposal is not universally accepted.
2. Wikipedia: Athabaskan Languages
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
Navajo is spoken by the largest number of people of any native language north of Mexico.
Wikipedia: Navajo Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Navajo, Lead section, Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dene family statementView the Source Open Questions (2 open questions)
Does Haida belong within the Na-Dene family, or is it an unrelated language isolate?
Haida was formerly grouped with Na-Dene, but linguists such as Lyle Campbell consider the comparative evidence for that link inconclusive and classify Haida as a language isolate instead. A separate, still-debated hypothesis (Dene-Yeniseian) proposes linking Na-Dene itself to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia, the only living member of which is Ket.
What would resolve this A body of regular sound correspondences and shared basic morphology between Haida and the Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit core of Na-Dene, of the kind the comparative method requires, rather than the more impressionistic lexical resemblances the original grouping rested on.
Historical and comparative linguisticsWikipedia: Na-Dene Languages
How many speakers do the Na-Dene languages total today?
Sources report that Navajo, by far the most widely spoken Na-Dene language, dominates the family numerically, but none of the tertiary sources consulted totals Navajo together with the family remaining, more endangered members into a single Na-Dene figure.
What would resolve this A single aggregating source (a census bureau report or linguistic survey) that sums Navajo speakers with those of every other living Na-Dene language.
North American indigenous linguisticsWikipedia: Na-Dene Languages
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