Hän Language

Hän
Hän
Häł gołan
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	Yukon, Alaska
Ethnicity	Hän people
Native speakers	5 in Alaska, 1 in Yukon (2020)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Hän; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (Dené alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Alaska
Language codes
ISO 639-3	haa
Glottolog	hann1241
ELP	Han
	Han is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Athabascan refers to the interrelated complexity of languages spoken in Canada and Alaska each with its own dialect: the village of Eagle, Alaska in the United States and the town of Dawson City, Yukon Territory in Canada, though there are also Hän speakers in the nearby city of Fairbanks, Alaska. Furthermore, there was a decline in speakers in Dawson City as a result of the influx of gold miners in the mid-19th century.

Hän is in the Northern Athabaskan subgrouping of the Na-Dené language family. It is most closely related to Gwich'in and Upper Tanana.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Hän are listed below with IPA notation on the left, the standard orthography in ⟨brackets⟩:

Consonants
		Labial	Inter- dental	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
		Labial	Inter- dental	central	sibilant	lateral	Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p ⟨b⟩	tθ ⟨ddh⟩	t ⟨d⟩	ts ⟨dz⟩	tɬ ⟨dl⟩	tʃ ⟨j⟩	ʈʂ ⟨dr⟩	k ⟨g⟩	ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
	aspirated	(pʰ ⟨p⟩)	tθʰ ⟨tth⟩	tʰ ⟨t⟩	tsʰ ⟨ts⟩	tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩	tʃʰ ⟨ch⟩	ʈʂʰ ⟨tr⟩	kʰ ⟨k⟩
	ejective		tθʼ ⟨tth’⟩	tʼ ⟨t’⟩	tsʼ ⟨ts’⟩	tɬʼ ⟨tl’⟩	tʃʼ ⟨ch’⟩	ʈʂʼ ⟨tr’⟩	kʼ ⟨k’⟩
	prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩		ⁿd ⟨nd⟩			ⁿdʒ ⟨nj⟩
Fricative	voiceless		θ ⟨th⟩		s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨ł⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩	ʂ ⟨sr⟩	x ⟨kh⟩	h ⟨h⟩
Fricative	voiced		ð ⟨dh⟩		z ⟨z⟩	ɮ ⟨l⟩	ʒ ⟨zh⟩	ʐ ⟨zr⟩	ɣ ⟨gh⟩
Sonorant	voiced	m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩		l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩	ɻ ⟨r⟩	w ⟨w⟩
Sonorant	voiceless			n̥ ⟨nh⟩			j̊ ⟨yh⟩	ɻ̥ ⟨rh⟩	w̥ ⟨wh⟩

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i ⟨i⟩	iː ⟨ii⟩			u ⟨u⟩	uː ⟨uu⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨e⟩	eː ⟨ee⟩			o ⟨o⟩	oː ⟨oo⟩
Mid			ə ⟨ë⟩	əː ⟨ëë⟩
Open	æ ⟨a⟩	æː ⟨aa⟩			ɑ ⟨ä⟩	ɑː ⟨ää⟩
Diphthongs	æu ⟨aw⟩ æi ⟨ay⟩ ɑu ⟨äw⟩ eu ⟨ew⟩ ei ⟨ey⟩ iu ⟨iw⟩ oi ⟨oy⟩

Revitalization

There are about a dozen people, all elderly, who speak Hän as their native language, though there is a growing second-language speaker community.

The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in (formerly known as the Dawson First Nation) in the Yukon Territory support the revitalization of Hän, and there are current efforts to revive the language locally. There is an effort to promote traditional skills and finding a balance between the way of the newcomer's which further promotes the development and revitalization of the language. As of September 2022, there was only one fluent speaker of Hän in Yukon, a 95 year old elder.

Since 1991, the Robert Service School in Dawson City has hosted the Hän Language program, and the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in supports adult language classes and bi-annual cultural gatherings.

There are many other resources used to learn Hän, particularly online ones such as, FirstVoices and Yukon Native Learning Centre. These online learning language tools teach the tradition, culture, history, and the language of Hän.

Notes

References

Alaska Native Language Center. Alaska Native Language Center (accessed July 24, 2005).
Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

External links

Hän alphabet
Alaska Native Language Center: Han
Yukon Native Language Centre: Hän Archived 2020-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
The Endangered Languages Project: Han

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