Tagish is an extinct language spoken by the Tagish or Carcross-Tagish, a First Nations people that historically lived in the Northwest Territories and Yukon in Canada . The name Tagish derives from /ta:gizi dene/ , or "Tagish people", which is how they refer to themselves, where /ta:gizi/ is a place name meaning "it (spring ice) is breaking up.
23-658: The Tagish or Tagish Khwáan ( Tagish : Tā̀gish kotʼīnèʼ ; Tlingit : Taagish ḵwáan ) are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan -speaking ethnolinguistic group that lived around Tagish Lake and Marsh Lake , in Yukon of Canada. The Tagish intermarried heavily with Tlingit from the coast and the Tagish language became extinct in 2008. Today Tagish people live mainly in Carcross or Whitehorse and are members of
46-784: A First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living mainly in the southern Yukon in Canada. The Southern Tutchone language, traditionally spoken by the Southern Tutchone people, is a variety of the Tutchone language , part of the Athabaskan language family. Some linguists suggest that Northern and Southern Tutchone are distinct and separate languages. Southern Tutchone First Nations governments and communities include: Many citizens of
69-487: A macron as follows: ⟨ā⟩ . Nasal vowels are denoted by a hook as follows: ⟨ᶏ⟩ . High tone is marked with (v́) on short vowels and (v́v) on long vowels while low tones remain unmarked. The language makes use of the Latin writing system . Some women's names contain the nasalized prefix Maa which translates directly to "mother of." Southern Tutchone The Southern Tutchone are
92-415: A few hundred speakers. As of 2004 the number of individuals who spoke Southern Tutchone as their first language was 404, and the total number of individuals who had some knowledge of the language was 645. The Southern Tutchone language is an endangered language with fewer than 100 speakers. There have been revitalization efforts in place to help combat the dwindling numbers. This includes signage throughout
115-495: Is also closely related to the neighboring languages Tahltan, Kaska , and Southern Tutchone. The Tagish people make their territory in southern Yukon Territory and northern British Columbia in Canada, most specifically at Tagish, which lies between Marsh Lake and Tagish Lake , and Carcross , located between Bennett and Nares Lake . The language was used most frequently in the Lewes and Teslin plateaus. The culture of
138-468: Is among many other languages within the large language family of Na-Dene languages , which includes another group of indigenous North American languages called the Athabaskan languages. The Northern Athabaskan languages are often considered to be part of a complex of languages entitled Tagish-Tahltan-Kaska. The languages in this complex have an extremely similar lexicon and grammar but differ in systems of obstruents . Known alternatively as Dene K'e, Tagish
161-453: Is breaking up" and also gave its name to Tagish Lake. Tagish language The language is a Northern Athabaskan language , closely related to Tahltan and Kaska . The three languages are often grouped together as Tahltan-Kaska-Tagish; the three languages are considered dialects of the same language by some. As of 2004, there was only 1 native fluent speaker of Tagish documented: Lucy Wren (Agaymā/Ghùch Tlâ). She died in 2008. Tagish
184-468: Is controversial in what is overlap with different indigenous groups of people in Yukon. The Tutchone language was separated into two groups by McClellan in which she called them Southern and Northern Tutchone . The languages themselves are close, but are different in subtle dialects. In the early 1950s there were close to 20,000 Southern Tutchone speaking individuals. This has since plummeted to less than
207-763: The Carcross/Tagish First Nation or the Kwanlin Dün First Nation . Members of the Tagish First Nation made the gold discovery that led to the Klondike Gold Rush : Keish (Skookum Jim Mason) , Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack) ] and Káa goox (Dawson Charlie) . The word Tagish also refers to the Tagish language, an Athabaskan language spoken by the ancestors of these people. Tagish means "it (spring ice)
230-696: The Kwanlin Dün First Nation ( Kwänlin Dän kwächʼǟn - "Whitehorse people", formerly White Horse Indian Band ) in Whitehorse are of Southern Tutchone origin; their name refers to a section of the Yukon River from Miles Canyon Basalts to the White Horse Rapids which their ancestors called Kwanlin meaning "running water through canyon” and together with the Southern Tutchone word Dän or Dün for ″people″, they referred to this location for naming
253-672: The Yukon 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
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#1732773300865276-581: The "Our Elders Statement" before passing in 2008. 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. The Tagish language includes aspiration, glottalization, nasal sounds, resonance, and tones. Tagish is characterized by the simplest stem-initial consonant system of
299-483: The KDFN) The Southern Tutchone people named by the late Catharine McClellan ; are a group of Athabaskan speaking indigenous people of Southern Yukon , Canada. Today, the Southern Tutchone language is more often being called, "Dän'ke" which means 'our way' or, "Dän k'e kwänje" which means 'our way of speaking' in the Athabaskan language. This territory stretches over the south-west Yukon, and
322-810: The Northern Athabaskan languages, has a conservative vowel system and conserves stem-final consonants. Final glottalization is lost. Constricted vowels are pronounced with low tone . 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. The total inventory of phonemes present in Tagish includes: The short vowels /i, e, a, o, u/; as well as their long counterparts /iː, eː, aː, oː, uː/. Long vowels are denoted with
345-466: The Tagish people has its roots in both the coastal Indian cultures and those from the interior ( Tlingit and Athabaskan languages , Athapaskan respectively). Trade and travel across the Chilkoot 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
368-513: The Yukon highlighting the language. Other revitalization efforts includes an adult immersion program focused on increasing the number of speakers in the Champagne and Aishihik traditional territory. In 2015 the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations launched the first Da Ku Nän Ts'tthèt (Our House is Waking Up the Land) dance festival which focused on Southern Tutchone language and culture. This
391-404: The alphabet. To provide a cultural context, there are also a community slide show and art gallery section. This website includes greetings from a multitude of elders complete with contact information about the website's contributors. 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
414-437: The language, as well as a greater focus on in-school programs, language conferences, and public awareness. For example, beginning in 2004, Southern Tutchone and Tagish languages were being revitalized and protected through an on-line approach called FirstVoices . The federal government signed an agreement giving the territory $ 4.25 million over five years to "preserve, develop and enhance aboriginal languages", however Tagish
437-471: The site include sound files of name pronunciation, word lists, and some children's books written in the language. This language documentation is intended to create a holistic platform where identity, oral tradition, elders' knowledge and the centrality of the land can all be intertwined. On the Tagish FirstVoices page, there are a total of 36 words and 442 phrases archived and sound recordings of
460-591: 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. Tagish became less common partially because native traditions were domesticated and suppressed in writing by the colonial administration. 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. After
483-460: Was Tagish on her father's side and Tlingit on her mother's side. Sidney's accomplishments include working with Julie Cruikshank , documenting and authoring traditional stories as well as becoming a member of the Order of Canada in 1986. Sidney died in 1991. Lucy Wren was the last known fluent speaker. She was actively involved in the recordings and stories used on the First Voices website including
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#1732773300865506-502: Was hosted at the cultural centre named Da Ku , meaning "our house" in Southern Tutchone. Efforts for revitalization have also included school programs throughout the territory, as well as a language nest in Haines Junction, Yukon. The Yukon Native Language Centre has played a key role in many revitalization efforts as they have developed Indigenous teacher education programs, as well as curriculum materials. In other places in
529-478: 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. FirstVoices is an indigenous language computer database and web-based teaching and development tool. Tagish was one of the first to be added to the FirstVoices digital multimedia archive of endangered indigenous languages. Resources on
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