Dena’ina language
| Tanaina | |
|---|---|
| Dena’ina Qenaga or Dena'inaq' | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Alaska (Cook Inlet region, Lake Clark, Lake Iliamna) |
| Ethnicity | 900 Dena'ina people (2007) |
|
Native speakers
|
75 (2007) |
| Latin (Dena'ina alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | tana1289 |
Dena’ina /dᵻˈnaɪnə/, also Tanaina, is the Athabaskan language of the region surrounding Cook Inlet. It is geographically unique in Alaska as the only Alaska Athabaskan language to include territory which borders salt water. Four dialects are usually distinguished:
Of the total Dena'ina population of about 900 people, only 75–95 members still speak Dena’ina. James Kari has done extensive work on the language since 1972, including his edition with Alan Boraas of the collected writings of Peter Kalifornsky in 1991. Joan M. Tenenbaum also conducted extensive field research on the language in the 1970s.
The word Dena'ina is composed of the dena, meaning 'person' and the human plural suffix ina. While the apostrophe which joins the two parts of this word ordinarily indicates a glottal stop, most speakers pronounce this with a diphthong, so that the second syllable of the word rhymes with English 'nine' (as in the older spelling Tanaina).
Dena'ina is one of seven Alaska Athabaskan languages which does not distinguish phonemic tone.
The consonants of Dena’ina in practical orthography, with IPA equivalents indicated in square brackets.
[ɹ] is only found in English loanwords.
The 4 vowels of Dena’ina. Note that close vowels are more open in the environment of a uvular consonant.
Generally, the vowels i, a, and u, are considered 'long' vowels and are fully pronounced in words, however the e is considered a reduced vowel similar to the English schwa.
In the Inland dialect, syllables at the end of a semantic unit are often longer, lower in pitch, and have longer rhymes. The onset of a syllable has consonant clusters of up to three, such as CCCVC, though these are rare and more commonly, a syllable onset is one or two consonants.
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