Alaska Native Languages
Language Relationships
Alaska is home to at least 20 different Native languages belonging to four distinct language families. As the term implies, a language family is a group of languages which are descended from a common ancestor. Languages related in this way often share many resemblances, just as do people descended from a common ancestor. Of course, just as unrelated people may look alike, languages may be similar without being related through a common ancestor.
In Alaska it is relatively easy to distinguish language families. The difference between Eskimo-Aleut and Athabascan-Eyak-Tlingit is immediately obvious even to the casual listener. First, the sound systems are very different. For example, AET languages all contain ejective, or popping, consonants, while Eskimo-Aleut languages do not. Furthermore, the rules of word formation are completely different in the two families. Eskimo-Aleut languages build words by adding suffixes to the right end of a word root, while AET languages build words by adding prefixes to the left end of word root. The Haida and Tsimshian languages are not related to either the Eskimo-Aleut or AET families. Tsimshian is related to three other languages in Canada which together form the Tsimshianic family. Haida, though structurally quite similar to Tlingit, has not been demonstrably related to any other language family in the world. It is a language isolate, a linguistic orphan as it were.
Be aware that the words language and dialect are used in very different ways by non-linguists. It is common for languages of low status to be referred to as “dialects,” while dialects of high status might be referred to as languages. Thus, you might hear about the “American language” (actually a dialect of English) or about the “Gwich’in dialect” (actually a distinct language with the Athabascan family). Language is power.
Distinguishing between individual languages within a family of related languages is a much more difficult task. The crucial problem is deciding just how much of a difference justifies calling two speech varieties different languages rather than different dialects.
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Family Tree
Relationships between languages can be modelled in a way similar to human geneology using a family tree. At the lower levels of the tree this model is imperfect for describing langs, as the effects of diffusion become more pronounced. This is particularly true of the Athabascan family, where multiple features have diffused across the family in different directions. Thus, it is not possible to say whether Tanacross is more closely related to Tanana or Han or Upper Tanana or Ahtna. Rather, Tanacross shares certain features with each of the neighboring languages.
A consensus family tree for Alaskan languages is given below. Clicking on an individual language name in the graphic links to more detailed information about that language.
Language Maps
Language relationships are often represented on a language map. The standard map of Alaska Native langs, Michael Krauss' Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska (1974, revised 1982) shows language relationships as shades of colors. The languages of the Eskimo-Aleut family are shades of blue, while the languages of the Athabascan family of are various shades of red. Eyak and Tlingit are shaded toward the yellow or brown end of the spectrum, reflecting their status as more distant cousins of the Athabascan languages. Haida and Tsimshian receive completely different colors, relfecting the fact that they are not related to other languages in Alaska. Notice that these colors are not rendered acurately in the various electronic versions of the maps (including the image above and the many imitations which proliferate across the internet). more...
Complied by Gary Holton
