Hän language

Encyclopedia : H : HN : HNL : Hän language

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.

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.

External links

• [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.

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