Upper Kuskokwim
Dinakʼi
Native toUnited States
RegionAlaska (middle Yukon River, Koyukuk River)
Ethnicity160 Upper Kuskokwim (2007)[1]
Native speakers
<5 (2020)[2]
Latin (Northern Athabaskan alphabet)
Official status
Official language in
 Alaska[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3kuu
Glottologuppe1438
ELPUpper Kuskokwim
Upper Kuskokwim is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Upper Kuskokwim language (also called Kolchan or Goltsan or Dinak'i) is an Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené language family. It is spoken by the Upper Kuskokwim people in the Upper Kuskokwim River villages of Nikolai, Telida, and McGrath, Alaska. About 40 of a total of 160 Upper Kuskokwim people (Dichinanek’ Hwt’ana) still speak the language.

A practical orthography of the language was established by Raymond Collins, who in 1964 began linguistic work at Nikolai.

Since 1990s, the language has also been documented by a Russian linguist Andrej Kibrik.[4][5]

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns are divided into two classes: those which can be possessed, but do not have to be (such as clothing, animals and lake names) and those which are always possessed (such as body parts).

For the former group, some nouns that are possessed have a change in spelling and pronunciation when they are possessed. For example, the prefix "si-" indicates "my".[6]

Possessive Noun Changes [6]
Upper KuskokwimEnglish
tamełfishnet
sitamela'my fishnet
nitamela'your fishnet
mitamela'his/her fishnet

However, other nouns that may be possessed do not undergo any sound changes, and instead the possession is indicated either by the separate possessive word sich'i, or by the prefix si-. For example, k'esh (birch tree) becomes sich'i k'esh (my birch tree) and tin (trail) becomes sitin (my trail).[6]

Verbs can be changed into nouns with the suffix -e. This also causes sound changes in some verbs.[6]

Adjectives

There are few adjectives that modify nouns in Upper Kuskokwim. Adjectives are added after nouns, e.g. "nilane gwṉ" ("dried meat").[6]

Upper KuskokwimEnglish
chwhbig
goyasmall
gwṉdried
hwts'akanarrow

Syntax

Upper Kuskokwim uses SOV word order. It is a partially inflectional and partially agglutinative language, and a pro-drop language.[6]

ex:

Dina

man

dineje

moose

izdlan.

he/she-caught

Dina dineje izdlan.

man moose he/she-caught

'The man caught a moose.'

ex:

Dineje

moose

izdlan.

he/she-caught

Dineje izdlan.

moose he/she-caught

'He caught a moose.'

ex:

Yizdlan.

it-he/she-caught

Yizdlan.

it-he/she-caught

'He caught it.'

Bibliography

  • Alaska Native Language Center. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.
  • Collins, Raymond and Sally Jo Collins. 2004. Dichinanek' Hwt'ana: A History of the people of the Upper Kuskokwim who live in Nikolai and Telida, Alaska. (Online: Alaska Native Language Archive item UK964C2004)

References

  1. ↑ Upper Kuskokwim language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Report to the Government and Legislature alaska.gov
  3. ↑ "Alaska OKs Bill Making Native Languages Official : The Two-Way : NPR". NPR.
  4. ↑ "Kibrik Papers". Archived from the original on 2013-12-10.
  5. ↑ "result.xml | Alaska Native Language Archive". Archived from the original on 2015-04-23.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Petruska, Betty Esai; Collins, Raymond (1979). Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan Junior Dictionary. Alaska Native Language Archive. Retrieved 18 December 2023.


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