Legend: unrounded • rounded
17-701: Knik Arm ( Dena'ina : Nuti ) is a waterway into the northwestern part of the Gulf of Alaska . It is one of two narrow branches of Cook Inlet , the other being Turnagain Arm . Knik Glacier empties into the Knik Arm. The Port of Anchorage is located on the arm. The Dena'ina name for Knik Arm is Nuti , meaning "salt water". The name "Knik" comes from igniq , the Iñupiaq word for "fire". It has been written Kinik, Kneep, Kneik, Kook, Knuyk, and Kweek. Knik Arm begins at
34-433: A Dena'ina artist, Argent Kvasnikoff, created a custom alphabet for the language. Denaʼina is a polysynthetic language where a single word can mean the entirety of an English sentence. nu- again- n- you- t- FUT - n- see- gh- FUT - sh- I- l- CL - 'ił see/ FUT nu- n- t- n- gh- sh- l- 'ił again- you- FUT- see- FUT- I- CL- see/FUT "I will see you again." Verbs are
51-647: Is qi lan qi lan they are qi lan Schwa The mid central vowel (also known as schwa ) is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages . The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ ə ⟩, a rotated lowercase letter e , which is called a "schwa". While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not define
68-473: Is close-mid front rounded [ ø̜ ] , close to the main allophone of /ʏ/ . "Mid central vowel" and "schwa" do not always mean the same thing, and the symbol ⟨ ə ⟩ is often used for any obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the unstressed English vowel transcribed ⟨ ə ⟩ and called "schwa" is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid [ ɘ ] , mid [ə] or open-mid [ ɜ ] , depending on
85-451: Is frequently written with the symbol [ə] . If greater precision is desired, the symbol for the close-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic , [ɘ̞] . Another possibility is using the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising diacritic , [ɜ̝] . Languages may have a mid central rounded vowel (a rounded [ə] ), distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language
102-441: Is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and the symbol [ɵ] for the close-mid central rounded vowel is generally used instead. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used: [ɵ̞] . This vowel can also be represented by adding the more rounded diacritic to the schwa symbol, or by combining the raising diacritic with the open-mid central rounded vowel symbol, although it
119-550: Is the Athabaskan language of the region surrounding Cook Inlet . It is geographically unique in Alaska as the only Alaska Athabaskan language to include territory which borders salt water. Four dialects are usually distinguished: Of the total Denaʼina population of about 900 people, only 75–95 members still speak Denaʼina. James Kari has done extensive work on the language since 1972, including his edition with Alan Boraas of
136-437: The roundedness of [ə] , it is more often unrounded than rounded. The phonetician Jane Setter describes the pronunciation of the unrounded variant as follows: "a sound which can be produced by basically relaxing the articulators in the oral cavity and vocalising." To produce the rounded variant, all that needs to be done in addition to that is to round the lips. Afrikaans contrasts unrounded and rounded mid central vowels;
153-737: The Arm, including the downtown area. The proposed Knik Arm Bridge would measure approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from Point MacKenzie on the west in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to Anchorage on the east. The Knik Arm ferry was a proposed year-round passenger and auto ferry across the arm which was to use the M/V Susitna SWATH / barge convertible expedition craft. 61°12′00″N 150°13′00″W / 61.2000°N 150.2167°W / 61.2000; -150.2167 Dena%CA%BCina language Denaʼina / d ɪ ˈ n aɪ n ə / , also Tanaina ,
170-689: The Inlet's northern edge, near Anchorage , before heading north and east. It is about 15 miles (24 km) long, and at its upper end, receives the waters of the Matanuska River . West of Knik Arm is the delta of the Susitna River , the largest stream emptying into the inlet. At the head of Knik Arm, at the mouth of Knik River , was the village (ghost town) of Knik . Knik Arm's other major tributaries are Ship Creek , Eagle River , Peter's Creek, Eklutna River and Fish Creek. The greater part of
187-406: The collected writings of Peter Kalifornsky in 1991. Joan M. Tenenbaum also conducted extensive field research on the language in the 1970s. The word Denaʼina is composed of the dena , meaning 'person' and the human plural suffix ina . While the apostrophe which joins the two parts of this word ordinarily indicates a glottal stop, most speakers pronounce this with a diphthong, so that
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#1732776192883204-568: The e is considered a reduced vowel similar to the English schwa . In the Inland dialect, syllables at the end of a semantic unit are often longer, lower in pitch, and have longer rhymes. The onset of a syllable has consonant clusters of up to three, such as CCCVC, though these are rare and more commonly, a syllable onset is one or two consonants. Dena'ina uses a variant of the Latin alphabet, though
221-403: The environment. The French vowel transcribed that way is closer to [ ø ] . If a mid-central vowel of a language is not a reduced vowel , or if it may be stressed, it may be more unambiguous to transcribe it with one of the other mid-central vowel letters: ⟨ ɘ ɜ ⟩ for an unrounded vowel or ⟨ ɵ ɞ ⟩ for a rounded vowel. The mid central unrounded vowel
238-513: The latter is usually transcribed with ⟨ œ ⟩. The contrast is not very stable, and many speakers use an unrounded vowel in both cases. Danish and Luxembourgish have a mid central vowel that is variably rounded. In other languages, the change in rounding is accompanied with the change in height and/or backness. For instance, in Dutch , the unrounded allophone of /ə/ is mid central unrounded [ə] , but its word-final rounded allophone
255-522: The most elaborate part of speech in the Denaʼina language, which vary in verb paradigms which vary by subject, object, or aspect. The following example is of -lan the verb "to be" in the imperfective aspect and in the Nondalton dialect. esh lan esh lan I am ch'i lan ch'i lan we are in lan in lan you are eh lan eh lan you all are n lan n lan he/she/it
272-648: The plain, lying between the Knik Arm and the Susitna River, is drained by the Little Susitna. The upper part of Knik Arm merges into the delta of the Knik and Matanuska rivers, which unite just above tide limits. Knakatnuk and Nitak (or Nitakh) were historic native villages on the arm's shore. The 1964 Alaska earthquake destroyed or significantly damaged most of the Anchorage neighborhoods adjacent to
289-477: The second syllable of the word rhymes with English 'nine' (as in the older spelling Tanaina ). Denaʼina is one of seven Alaska Athabaskan languages which does not distinguish phonemic tone. The consonants of Denaʼina in practical orthography, with IPA equivalents. The 4 vowels of Denaʼina. Close vowels are more open in the environment of a uvular consonant. Generally, the vowels i, a, and u are considered 'long' vowels and are fully pronounced in words, however
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