9-564: The Ninilchik River ( Dena'ina : Niqnalchintnu ) is a 21-mile-long (34 km) stream on the Kenai Peninsula of the U.S. state of Alaska . From headwaters near the west coast of the peninsula, the river flows south, parallel to the coast, then turns sharply west near Ninilchik . Ninilchik Road runs parallel to the lower river along its left bank to near the road's intersection with the Sterling Highway . At Ninilchik,
18-433: 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
27-585: The beaches near Ninilchik is also popular. This article about a location in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Alaska is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Dena%CA%BCina language Denaʼina / d ɪ ˈ n aɪ n ə / , also Tanaina , is the Athabaskan language of
36-406: 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
45-568: 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
54-522: 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
63-407: 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
72-469: The river passes under the highway, flows through Ninilchik State Recreation Area, and empties into Cook Inlet . A small boat harbor, used mainly by fishing boats, is dredged out of the river mouth near the town. The river is a popular fishing location for king salmon in May and June, silver salmon and Dolly Varden in late summer and early fall, and steelhead in late fall. Digging for razor clams along
81-477: 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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