| Tagish | |
|---|---|
| Dene K'e | |
| Tā̀gish | |
| Native to | Canada |
| Region | Northwest Territories,Yukon |
| Ethnicity | Tagish people |
| Extinct | 2008, with the death of Lucy Wren[1][2] |
Dené–Yeniseian?
| |
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tgx |
| Glottolog | tagi1240 |
| ELP | Tagish |
 Tagish is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Tagish is an extinct Athabaskan language spoken by theTagish or Carcross-Tagish, aFirst Nations people that historically lived in theNorthwest Territories andYukon inCanada. The Tagish people refer to themselves as/ta:gizidene/, literally "Tagish people", where/ta:gizi/ is a place name meaning "it (spring ice) is breaking up".[3]
The language is aNorthern Athabaskan language, closely related toTahltan andKaska. The three languages are often grouped together as Tahltan-Kaska-Tagish; the three languages are sometimes considered dialects of the same language.[4] As of 2004, there was only 1 native fluent speaker of Tagish documented: Lucy Wren (Agaymā/Ghùch Tlâ).[5] She died in 2008.[6]
Tagish is a Northern Athabaskan language, which is a subgrouping of the largeNa-Dene language family.[7][8] Tagish is closely related to neighboring languagesTahltan andKaska[9] (forming a complex known as Tagish-Tahltan-Kaska) andSouthern Tutchone[9]. The languages in this complex have an extremely similar lexicon and grammar but differ in systems ofobstruents.[4] It is alternatively known as Dene K'e.[citation needed]
TheTagish people make their territory in southernYukon Territory and northernBritish Columbia in Canada,[3] most specifically at Tagish, which lies betweenMarsh Lake andTagish Lake, andCarcross, located betweenBennett andNares Lake.[5] The language was used most frequently in the Lewes andTeslin plateaus.
The culture of the Tagish people has its roots in both the coastal indigenous cultures and those from the interior (Tlingit andAthabaskan, respectively).[5] Trade and travel across theChilkoot pass contributed to the mixing of these cultures. In the 19th and early 20th centuries,Tlingit-speaking peoples began to move in from the coast and intermarry with the native Tagish-speaking population. By the time outsiders first made contact in the 1880s, the majority of the people were bilingual, and the Tlingit language had replaced Tagish as the language of the majority.[5]
Tagish became less common partially because native traditions were domesticated and suppressed in writing by the colonial administration.[10] The most significant impact on the decline of nearly every native language in Canada came when aboriginal children were forced to attend residential schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages.[11]
After theYukon Gold Rush in 1898, English became the majority language of the area. As the majority of children attended the English-only Chooutla Anglican school nearby, fluency in the native languages began to be lost. Language courses began to be reintroduced in the 1970s, but the programs had little funding and were not comparable to the French or English programs present. More recently, political awareness has led to movements to gain constitutional provisions for the language, as well as a greater focus on in-school programs, language conferences, and public awareness.[9] For example, beginning in 2004,Southern Tutchone and Tagish languages were being revitalized and protected through an on-line approach calledFirstVoices.
The federal government signed an agreement giving the territory $4.25 million over five years to "preserve, develop and enhance aboriginal languages";[12] however, Tagish was not one of the offered native language programs. Ken McQueen stated that despite efforts, the language will likely become extinct after the last fluent Tagish speaker dies.[13]
Tagish was one of the first languages to be added to theFirstVoices digital multimedia archive of endangered indigenous languages.[9] FirstVoices is an indigenous language computer database and web-based teaching and development tool.[14] Resources on the site include sound files of name pronunciation, word lists, and some children's books written in the language.[9]
Angela Sidney was a prominent activist for the use and reclamation of her Tagish language and heritage in the southern Yukon Territory. Born in 1902, her heritage was Tagish on her father's side and Tlingit on her mother's side. Sidney's accomplishments include working withJulie Cruikshank, documenting and authoring traditional stories[15] as well as becoming a member of theOrder of Canada in 1986. Sidney died in 1991.[16]
Lucy Wren was the last known fluent speaker. She was actively involved in the recordings and stories used on the First Voices website including the "Our Elders Statement" before passing in 2008.[17] This work by Lucy Wren has been continued by her son Norman James as he works to record more language and culture of the Tagish and Tlingit people for the Yukon Native Language Centre and the First Voices website.[18]
The Tagish language includes aspiration, glottalization, nasal sounds, resonance, and tones.[19]
Tagish is characterized by the simplest stem-initial consonant system of the Northern Athabaskan languages, has a conservative vowel system and conserves stem-final consonants. Finalglottalization is lost. Constricted vowels are pronounced with lowtone.[19]
The Tagish language includes nouns, verbs, and particles. Particles and nouns are single, sometimes compounded,morphemes, but the difference is that nouns can be inflected and particles cannot. Verbs are the most complex class in this language because their stemmed morphemes have many prefixes which indicate inflectional and derivational categories.[20]
The total inventory ofphonemes present in Tagish includes:[21]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | ||||||
| Plosive | plain | t⟨d⟩ | t͡s⟨dz⟩ | t͡ɬ⟨dl⟩ | t͡ʃ⟨j⟩ | k⟨g⟩ | ʔ⟨'⟩ | |
| aspirated | tʰ⟨t⟩ | t͡sʰ⟨ts⟩ | t͡ɬʰ⟨tl⟩ | t͡ʃʰ⟨ch⟩ | kʰ⟨k⟩ | |||
| ejective | tʼ⟨t'⟩ | t͡sʼ⟨ts'⟩ | t͡ɬʼ⟨tl'⟩ | t͡ʃʼ⟨ch'⟩ | kʼ⟨k'⟩ | |||
| prenasal | ᵐb⟨mb⟩ | ⁿd⟨nd⟩ | ||||||
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s⟨s⟩ | ɬ⟨ł⟩ | ʃ⟨sh⟩ | x⟨x⟩ | h⟨h⟩ | ||
| voiced | z⟨z⟩ | ɮ⟨l⟩ | ʒ⟨zh⟩ | ɣ⟨ÿ⟩ | ||||
| Semivowel | j⟨y⟩ | w⟨w⟩ | ||||||
The short vowels /i, e, a, o, u/; as well as their long counterparts /iː, eː, aː, oː, uː/.[22]
Long vowels are denoted with amacron as follows:⟨ā⟩.Nasal vowels are denoted by ahook as follows:⟨ᶏ⟩.[23]
High tone is marked with (v́) on short vowels and (v́v) on long vowels while low tones remain unmarked.[24]
The language makes use of theLatin writing system.[23]
Some women's names contain the nasalized prefixMaa which translates directly to "mother of."[24]
Authority control databases: National |
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