10-609: The Mulchatna River ( Dena'ina : Vałts'atnaq') is a 160-mile (260 km) tributary of the Nushagak River in the U.S. state of Alaska . Beginning at Turquoise Lake, it flows generally southwest to meet the larger river 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Dillingham . The Mulchatna's mouth is slightly south (downstream) of the village of Koliganek on the Nushagak, which continues southwest to Nushagak Bay , an arm of Bristol Bay . The upper 24 miles (39 km) of
20-401: A glottal stop, most speakers pronounce this with a diphthong, so that 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
30-584: A syllable onset is one or two consonants. Dena'ina uses a variant of the Latin alphabet, though 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
40-676: The Chilikadrotna River , are popular Southwest Alaska destinations for floatfishing. Other Mulchatna tributaries, including the Stuyahok and Koktuli rivers, are also popular fishing streams. The main game fish frequenting the Mulchatna are king salmon , silver salmon , char , Arctic grayling , and rainbow trout . Varying from Class I (easy) to III (difficult) on the International Scale of River Difficulty ,
50-452: The Mulchatna is floatable by many kinds of watercraft on the Class I water below Bonanza Creek. The upper 50 miles (80 km) or so of the river, however, vary between Class II (medium) and III, may require portages , and are sometimes too shallow to float. Other dangers include ledge drops and haystack waves above Bonanza Creek and possible logjams and overhanging vegetation along the rest of
60-564: The environment of a uvular consonant. Generally, the vowels i, a, and u are considered 'long' vowels and are fully pronounced in words, however 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,
70-404: The language since 1972, including his edition with Alan Boraas of 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
80-522: 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
90-660: The river, which flow through Lake Clark National Park and Preserve , became part of the National Wild and Scenic River System in 1980. Aside from scattered cabins, the Mulchatna River is undeveloped. However, there is a proposal to build a large copper/gold mine, the Pebble Mine , in the watershed of one of the Mulchatna tributaries, the Koktuli River . The Mulchatna River and one of its tributaries,
100-587: The river. Dena%CA%BCina language Denaʼina / d ɪ ˈ n aɪ n ə / , also Tanaina , 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
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