Chief Isaac of the Han people

The Hän language is a Native American endangered language spoken in only two places: Eagle, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon. There are only a few fluent speakers left (perhaps about 15), all of them elderly. Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... Motto: none Official languages English, French Flower Fireweed Tree Subalpine Fir Bird Common Raven Capital Whitehorse Largest city Whitehorse Commissioner Geraldine Van Bibber Premier Dennis Fentie (Yukon Party) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 1 1 Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of total)  Ranked 9th 482,443 km² 474,391 km... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... 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. ... Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of distantly related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, and of their language family. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (768x626, 115 KB)Chief Isaac of the Han American Memory from the Library of Congress info Chief Isaac of the Han, Yukon Territory, ca. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (768x626, 115 KB)Chief Isaac of the Han American Memory from the Library of Congress info Chief Isaac of the Han, Yukon Territory, ca. ... A Hupa man, 1923 The indigenous peoples of the Americas were the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. ... An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ... Eagle is a city located along the United States-Canada border in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska. ... Aerial view of Dawson City with the Yukon river in early May The Town of the City of Dawson or Dawson City is a town in the Yukon Territory of Canada, located at , . The current population is approximately 2,020. ...

It is a member of the Athabaskan language family, which is part of the larger Na-Dené family. The name of the language is derived from the name of the people, "Hän Hwëch'in", which in the language means "people who live along the river", the river being the Yukon. There are currently efforts to revive the language locally. Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of distantly related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, and of their language family. ... 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. ... Map of the Yukon River watershed The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. ...

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Han in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

Vowels

• short
  • a [a]
  • ä [з]
  • e [e]
  • ë [ə]
  • i [i]
  • o [o]
  • u [u]
• long
  • aa [aː]
  • ää [зː]
  • ee [eː]
  • ëë [əː]
  • ii [iː]
  • oo [oː]
  • uu [uː]
• diphthongs
  • aw [au]
  • ay [aj]
  • äw [зu]
  • ew [eu]
  • ey [ej]
  • iw [iu]
  • oy [oj]
• nasal vowels are marked by an ogonek accent, e.g., ą
• low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g., à
• rising tone is marked with a circumflex accent, e.g., â
• falling tone is marked with a háček, e.g., ǎ
• high tone is never marked

External links

• New dictionary seeks to preserve endangered Han language
• Hän (Yukon Native Language Center - includes alphabet)
• Han (ANLC)
• Ethnologue: Han

Bibilography

• Alaska Native Language Center. Alaska Native Language Center website: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/ (accessed July 24, 2005).
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.