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The 'Hän language' is a Native American endangered language spoken in only two places: Eagle, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon. There are only a few fluent speakers left (perhaps about 15), all of them elderly.
It is a member of the Athabaskan language family, which is part of the larger Na-Dené family. The name of the language is derived from the name of the people, "Hän Hwëch'in", which in the language means "people who live along the river", the river being the Yukon. There are currently efforts to revive the language locally.

Contents

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

External links

Bibliography

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Han in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

		Bilabial	Interdental	Alveolar	Lateral	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
'Stop'	voiceless	'b'		'd'			'dr'	'g'	'’'
	aspirated	'(p)'		't'			'tr'	'k'
	ejective			't’'			'tr’'	'k’'
'Affricate'	voiceless		'ddh'	'dz'	'dl'	'dj'
	aspirated		'tth'	'ts'	'tl'	'ch'
	ejective		'tth’'	'ts’'	'tl’'	'ch’'
'Fricative'	voiced		'dh'	'z'		'zh'	'zr'	'gh'
	voiceless		'th'	's'	'ł'	'sh'	'sr'	'kh'	'h'
'Nasal'	voiced	'm'		'n'
	voiceless			'nh'
	voiced stop	'mb'		'nd'
	voiced affricate				'nj'
'Approximant'	voiced	'w'			'l'	'y'	'r'
	voiceless	'wh'				'yh'	'rh'

Vowels

:
★ ''short''
:
★
★ 'a'
:
★
★ 'ä'
:
★
★ 'e'
:
★
★ 'ë'
:
★
★ 'i'
:
★
★ 'o'
:
★
★ 'u'
:
★ ''long''
:
★
★ 'aa'
:
★
★ 'ää'
:
★
★ 'ee'
:
★
★ 'ëë'
:
★
★ 'ii'
:
★
★ 'oo'
:
★
★ 'uu'
:
★ ''diphthongs''
:
★
★ 'aw'
:
★
★ 'ay'
:
★
★ 'äw'
:
★
★ 'ew'
:
★
★ 'ey'
:
★
★ 'iw'
:
★
★ 'oy'
:
★ nasal vowels are marked by an ogonek accent, e.g., 'ą'
:
★ low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g., 'à'
:
★ rising tone is marked with a circumflex accent, e.g., 'â'
:
★ falling tone is marked with a caron (''or'' háček), e.g., 'ǎ'
:
★ high tone is never marked, e.g., 'a'

External links

★ New dictionary seeks to preserve endangered Han language

★ Hän (Yukon Native Language Center - includes alphabet)

★ Han (ANLC)

★ Ethnologue: Han

Bibliography

★ Alaska Native Language Center. Alaska Native Language Center website: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/ (accessed July 24, 2005).

★ Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). ''Ethnologue: Languages of the world'' (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).

★ Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.