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The Haida language (X̲aat Kíl, X̲aadas Kíl, X̲aayda Kil) is the language of the Haida people. It contains well over 30 consonants, but only eight vowels. Though sometimes thought to be a member of the Na-Dené language family, it is usually considered to be a language isolate. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Leaving Skidegate Inlet aboard BC Ferries M/V Queen of Prince Rupert The Queen Charlotte Islands or Haida Gwaii (Land of the Haida) are an archipelago off the northwest coast of British Columbia, Canada, consisting of two main islands, Graham Island in the North, and Moresby Island in the south... For other uses, see Alaska (disambiguation). ... Prince of Wales Island is one of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle. ... This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ... Pre-contact distribution of Na-Dené languages (in red) Na-Dené (also Na-Dene, Nadene, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit) is a Native American language family which includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The Council of the Haida Nation is a governing body of the Haida. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (634x647, 100 KB) distribution of Haida language info created by w:User:Ish_ishwar in 2005 released under CC-by-2. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... This article is about the people. ... See also consonance in music. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Pre-contact distribution of Na-Dené languages (in red) Na-Dené (also Na-Dene, Nadene, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit) is a Native American language family which includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit. ... A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ...

It is extremely endangered, with only 35–50 living speakers, nearly all of whom are over the age of 70.

Currently Haida citizens and friends in all three dialect communities are working to revitalizing the language. In Skidegate, fluent speakers gather on a daily basis to work on the southern or Skidegate dialect and have produced a large series of recordings. In Masset, a group of younger learners is working with their fluent elders to reintegrate the northern or Masset dialect into their daily lives. In Alaska, the community conducts regular language classes for teens and adults, and has built a website complete with on-line recordings of the Kaigani dialect. Skidegate [skɪd É˜ ËŒgɘt] is a town in the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. ... Masset () is a village in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) in British Columbia, Canada. ...

Sounds

Consonants

1. Inside words, the plain stops can be voiced.
2. Technically [d̥͡l] is not an affricate; it is released as an approximant rather than a fricative.
3. For some speakers, [t͡ʃ] occurs only at the beginning of syllables, while [t͡s] does not occur there. They are the same phoneme. A similar situation applies with [t͡s’] and [t͡ʃ’].^{[citation needed]}
4. Instead of an epiglottal fricative, the Masset dialect uses an epiglottal trill.

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ... An epiglottal consonant is a consonant that is articulated with the aryepiglottal folds (see larynx) against the epiglottis. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants in a language. ... Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ) but release as a fricative (such as or or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ... Fortis (from Latin fortis strong) and lenis (from Latin lenis weak) are linguistics terms. ... Fortis (from Latin fortis strong) and lenis (from Latin lenis weak) are linguistics terms. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (a movement, a closure) of the glottis (the opening that leads from the nose and mouth cavities into the larynx and the lungs). ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... Epiglottal consonants are often allophonically trilled, and in some languages the trill is the primary realization of the consonant. ...

Tone

Haida features phonemic tone, the nature of which differs by dialect. In Kaigani the system is one of pitch accent, with at most one syllable per word featuring high tone; in Masset and Skidegate tone is contrastive in heavy syllables. All the above systems feature two tones: high and low. It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ... In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. ...

External links

• Haida language
• Listen to the sounds of Haida
• Raven, a story in the Haida language
• Haida writing systems