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Languages Of the United States
The United States does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English language, English (specifically, American English), which is the de facto national language. It is also the language spoken at home by the great majority of the U.S. population (approximately 78.5%). Many other languages are also spoken at home, especially Spanish language, Spanish (13.2% of the population), according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau; these include indigenous languages originally spoken by Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and native populations in the Territories of the United States, U.S. unincorporated territories. Other languages were brought in by people from Europe, Africa, Asia, other parts of the Americas, and Oceania, including multiple dialects, Creole language, creole languages, pidgin languages, and sign languages o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language Unity Act
The English Language Unity Act was first introduced in 2005. It hoped to establish English language, English as the official language of the federal government of the United States. If enacted it would require that all official functions and proceedings of federal and state government be conducted in English. It would also require that applicants for naturalization be tested on their ability to read and generally understand the English language. They would be tested on the laws of the United States as well as other important documents that relate to the law, including the Declaration of Independence (United States), Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States, Constitution. It would also require that all naturalization ceremonies be conducted in English. If a person became injured because of violations of this act, they would be able to file suit in court. Before this act could be considered by the House of Representatives of the United States, House of Represen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upper Tanana Language
Upper Tanana (also known as Tabesna, Nabesna or Nee'aanèegn') is an endangered language, endangered Alaskan Athabaskans, Athabaskan language spoken in eastern Interior Alaska, United States, mainly in the villages of Northway, Alaska, Northway, Tetlin, Alaska, Tetlin, and Tok, Alaska, Tok, and adjacent areas of the Canadian territory of Yukon. In 2000 there were fewer than 100 speakers, and the language was no longer being acquired by children. Overview Upper Tanana shows near mutual-intelligibility with neighboring Tanacross language, Tanacross but differs in several phonological features. In particular, Upper Tanana has low tone as a reflex of Proto-Athabaskan constriction, where Tanacross has high tone. Upper Tanana also has an extra vowel phoneme and has developed diphthongs through loss of final consonants. Traditionally, five main dialects have been recognized. The main Upper Tanana speaking communities today are located in the Alaskan communities of Northway and Tetl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upper Kuskokwim Language
The Upper Kuskokwim language (also called Kolchan or Goltsan or Dinak'i) is an Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené language family. It is spoken by the Upper Kuskokwim people in the Upper Kuskokwim River villages of Nikolai, Telida, and McGrath, Alaska. About 40 of a total of 160 Upper Kuskokwim people (Dichinanek’ Hwt’ana) still speak the language. A practical orthography of the language was established by Raymond Collins, who in 1964 began linguistic work at Nikolai. Since 1990s, the language has also been documented by a Russian linguist Andrej Kibrik Andrej Kibrik (russian: Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Ки́брик; born June 18, 1963) is a Russian linguist, the director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2017), and professor at the Phil .... Bibliography Alaska Native Language Center Retrieved on 2007-03-14. * Collins, Raymond and Sally Jo Collins. 2004. Dichinanek' Hwt'ana: A History of the people of the Uppe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsimshian Languages
The Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in Southeast Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. All Tsimshianic languages are endangered, some with only around 400 speakers. Only around 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak a Tsimshian language; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak Coast Tsimshian.Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07)"Tsimshian." University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.). (2005)"Tsimshian." Dallas, TX: SIL International Retrieved on 2007-04-11. Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an independent language family, with four main languages: Coast Tsims ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tlingit Language
The Tlingit language ( ; ''Lingít'' ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and culture. Missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church were the first to develop a written version of Tlingit by using the Cyrillic script to record and translate it when the Russian Empire had contact with Alaska and the coast of North America down to Sonoma County, California. After the Alaska Purchase, English-speaking missionaries from the United States developed a written version of the language with the Latin alphabet. History The history of Tlingit is poorly known, mostly because there is no written record until the first contact with Europeans around the 1790s. Documentation was sparse and irregular until the early 20th century. The language appears to have spread northward from the Ketchik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanana Language
Lower Tanana (also Tanana and/or Middle Tanana) is an endangered language spoken in Interior Alaska in the lower Tanana River villages of Minto and Nenana. Of about 380 Tanana people in the two villages, about 30 still speak the language. As of 2010, “Speakers who grew up with Lower Tanana as their first language can be found only in the 250-person village of Minto.” It is one of the large family of Athabaskan languages, also known as Dené. The Athabaskan (or Dené) bands who formerly occupied a territory between the Salcha and the Goodpaster rivers spoke a distinct dialect that linguists term the Middle Tanana language. Dialects *Toklat area dialect (') *Minto Flats-Nenana River dialect: Minto (') and Nenana (') *Chena River dialect: Chena Village () *Salcha River dialect: Salcha () Vocabulary samples * “man” * “woman” * “my grandfather” * “my grandmother” * “clan” * “mountain” * “black bear” * "brown bear" * “caribou” * “dog” * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanacross Language
Tanacross (also Transitional Tanana) is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken by fewer than 60 people in eastern Interior Alaska. Overview The word Tanacross (from " Tanana Crossing") has been used to refer both to a village in eastern Alaska and to an ethnolinguistic group. The modern village of Tanacross is accessible by a short access road from the Alaska Highway, and some speakers now reside in the regional center of Tok, located approximately ten miles east of the village on the highway. In addition several speakers now reside in the nearest commercial center of Fairbanks, located two hundred miles downstream from Tanacross village and accessible by all-weather highway. Tanacross is the ancestral language of the Mansfield-Kechumstuk and Healy Lake-Joseph Village bands of Tanana Athabaskan people, whose ancestral territory encompassed an area bounded by the Goodpaster River to the west, the Alaska Range to the south, the Fortymile and Tok rivers to the east, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samoan Language
Samoan ( or ; ) is a Polynesian language spoken by Samoans of the Samoan Islands. Administratively, the islands are split between the sovereign country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language, alongside English, in both jurisdictions. It is widely spoken across the Pacific region, heavily so in New Zealand and also in Australia and the United States. Among the Polynesian languages, Samoan is the most widely spoken by number of native speakers. Samoan is spoken by approximately 260,000 people in the archipelago and with many Samoans living in diaspora in a number of countries, the total number of speakers worldwide was estimated at 510,000 in 2015. It is the third-most widely spoken language in New Zealand, where 2.2% of the population, 101,900 people, were able to speak it as of 2018. The language is notable for the phonological differences between formal and informal speech as well as a ceremonial form used in Samoan oratory. Cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koyukon Language
Koyukon (also called ''Denaakk'e'') is the geographically most widespread Athabascan language spoken in Alaska. The Athabaskan language is spoken along the Koyukuk and the middle Yukon River in western interior Alaska. In 2007, the language had approximately 300 speakers, who were generally older adults bilingual in English. The total Koyukon ethnic population was 2,300. History Jules Jetté, a French Canadian Jesuit missionary, began recording the language and culture of the Koyukon people in 1898. Considered a fluent Koyukon speaker after spending years in the region, Jetté died in 1927. He had made a significant quantity of notes on the Koyukon people, their culture and beliefs, and their language. Eliza Jones, a Koyukon, came across these manuscripts while studying, and later working, at the University of Alaska in the early 1970s. Working from Jetté's notes and in consultation with Koyukon tribal elders, Jones wrote the ''Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary.'' It was edited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holikachuk Language
Holikachuk (own name: ''Doogh Qinag'') was an Athabaskan language formerly spoken at the village of Holikachuk (''Hiyeghelinhdi'') on the Innoko River in central Alaska. In 1962, residents of Holikachuk relocated to Grayling on the lower Yukon River. Holikachuk is intermediate between the Deg Xinag and Koyukon languages, linguistically closer to Koyukon but socially much closer to Deg Xinag. Though it was recognized by scholars as a distinct language as early as the 1840s, it was only definitively identified in the 1970s. Of about 180 Holikachuk people, only about 5 spoke the language in 2007. In March 2012, the last living fluent speaker of Holikachuk died in Alaska.ICTMN Staff. "Alaska Native Language Loses Last Fluent Speaker." Indian Country Today Media Network. 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2012/ref> James Kari compiled a short dictionary of Holikachuk in 1978, but Holikachuk remains one of the least documented Alaska Native languages. Examples http://www.subsistence.adf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
