Tahltan language

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Tahltan is a poorly documented Northern Athabaskan language historically spoken by the Tahltan people (also "Nahanni") who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. Some linguists consider Tahltan to be a language with 3 divergent but mutually intelligible dialects (Mithun 1999). The numbers below are according to Poser (2003):

• Tahltan   (approximately 35 speakers)
• Kaska   (approximately 400 speakers)
• Tagish   (approximately 2 speakers)

Other linguists consider these to be separate languages.

Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 1.3 Phonological processes 2 References

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

The 45 consonants of Tahltan:

		Bilabial	Interdental	Dental		Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
				central	lateral			plain	labial
Stop	unaspirated	p		t				k	kʷ	q
	aspirated							kʰ	kʷʰ	qʰ
	ejective							k’	k’ʷ	q’	ʔ
Affricate	unaspirated		tθ	ʦ	tɬ	ʧ
	aspirated		tθʰ	ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ
	ejective		tθ’	ʦ’	tɬ’	ʧ’
Nasal	plain	m		n
	glottalized			n’
Fricative	voiceless		θ	s	ɬ	ʃ	ç	x	xʷ	χ	h
	voiced		ð	z	ɮ	ʒ		ɣ	ɣʷ	ʁ
Approximant							j		w

[edit] Vowels

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] Phonological processes

• Vowel flattening.
• Consonant harmony
• Vowel nasalization
• Vowel laxing

[edit] References

• Cook, Eung-Do. (1972). Stress and related rules in Tahltan. International Journal of American Linguistics, 38, 231-233.
• Gafos, Adamantios. (1999). The articulatory basis of locality in phonology. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-8153-3286-6. (Revised version of the author's Doctoral dissertation, Johns Hopkins University).
• Hardwick, Margaret F. (1984). Tahltan phonology and morphology. (Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Toronto, Ontario).
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Nater, Hank. (1989). Some comments on the phonology of Tahltan. International Journal of American Linguistics, 55, 25-42.
• Poser, William J. (2003). The status of documentation for British Columbia native languages. Yinka Dene Language Institute Technical Report (No. 2). Vanderhoof, British Columbia: Yinka Dene Language Institute.
• Shaw, Patricia. (1991). Consonant harmony systems: The special status of coronal harmony. In C. Paradis & J.-F. Prunet (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology 2, the special status of coronals: Internal and external evidence (pp. 125-155). London: Academic Press.