Haida language
Encyclopedia : H : HA : HAI : Haida language
The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. It contains at least 46 consonants and only three vowels. Though sometimes thought to be a member of the Na-Dené language family, it is usually considered to be a language isolate.
It is extremely endangered, with only 35 – 50 living speakers, all of whom are over the age of 70.
Currently Haidas in all three dialect communities are working to reactivate the language. In Skidegate aging speakers gather on a daily basis to work on the "southern" or Skidegate dialect and have produced a series of recordings. In Masset the group is younger and are working to reintegrate the "northern" or Masset dialect in their daily lives. In Alaska the community has built a web based language tool complete with on line recordings of the "Kaigani" dialect. As of spring 2006 a very limited edition manual will be available to Haida working as Watchman in the field. The manual which uses a unique graphic style called Haida Manga is part of the informal but growing Haida efforts to create teaching tools. Haida Manga was also used in a 2001 publication called a "Tale of Two Shamans" ISBN 1-894778-01-4. This publication includes work originally translated by John R. Swanton (1906) and re-presented by linguist John Enrico (2001).
Sounds
Consonants
The consonants of Haida are charted below. To the left is the orthography developed by the Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC) for Alaskan Haida, followed by Enrico's orthography for Masset Haida, Enrico's orthography for Skidegate Haida, and the IPA notation (in brackets) of the sound as which Alaskan Haida realises the consonant in question:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Epiglottal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | ||||||||
| Stop | plain | b b b [b̥] | d d d [d̥] | g g g [g̊] | ĝ G r [ɢ̥] | ||||
| aspirated | p p p [pʰ] | t t t [tʰ] | k k k [kʰ] | k q q [qʰ] | |||||
| ejective | p' p' p' [p̕] | t' t' t' [t̕] | k' k' k' [k̕] | k' q' q' [q̕] | ' 7 7 [ʔ] | ||||
| Affricate | lenis | dl dl dl [d̥͡ɫ] | j j j [d̥͡ʒ̊] | ||||||
| fortis | ts ts ts [t͡s] | tl tl tl [t͡ɬʰ] | ch ts ts [t͡ʃ] | g r – [ʡ͡ʜ] | |||||
| ejective | ts' ts' ts' [t͡s̕] | tl' tl' tl' [t͡ɬ̕] | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s s s [s] | hl hl hl [ɬ] | x c c [ç] | x̂ X x [χ] | x x – [ʜ] | h h h [h] | ||
| Nasal | plain | m m m [m] | n n n [n] | ng ng ng [ŋ] | |||||
| glottalized | 'm 'm 'm [m̕] | 'n 'n 'n [n̕] | |||||||
| Approximant | plain | w w w [w] | l l l [ɫ] | y y y [j] | |||||
| glottalized | 'w 'w 'w [w̕] | 'l 'l 'l [l̕] | 'y 'y 'y [j̕] | ||||||
- Inside words the plain stops are voiced.
- At the end of words the aspirated stops lose their aspiration to become simple fortes.
- Instead of an epiglottal fricative, Masset Haida uses an epiglottal trill. This sound does not have an IPA symbol of its own.
- Technically dl is not an affricate (it is released into an approximant rather than into a fricative), and the "palatal" affricates are palato-alveolar. Similarly, [h] is here put in the fricative row as a matter of convenience and tradition, while this sound – the same sound as in most kinds of English – should probably be considered something else.
- [t͡ʃ] occurs only at the beginning of syllables, while [t͡s] does not occur there. They are the same phoneme. Therefore Enrico's orthographies use the same symbol, ts, for both.
- The ANLC orthography uses hyphens to distinguish, for example, n-g [ng] from ng [ŋ] and t-' [tʔ] from t' [t̕].
External links
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