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Tsetsaut Language
The Tsetsaut language is an extinct Athabascan language formerly spoken by the now-extinct Tsetsaut in the Behm and Portland Canal area of Southeast Alaska and northwestern British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that .... Virtually everything known of the language comes from the limited material recorded by Franz Boas in 1894 from two Tsetsaut slaves of the Nisga'a, which is enough to establish that Tsetsaut formed its own branch of Athabaskan. It is not known precisely when the language became extinct, but it was around the 1930s. One speaker was still alive in 1927. The Nisga'a name for the Tsetsaut people is "Jits'aawit" The Tsetsaut referred to themselves as the . The English name ''Tsetsaut'' is an anglicization of , "those of the interior", used by ...
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Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, second-largest country by total area, with the List of countries by length of coastline, world's longest coastline. Its Canada–United States border, border with the United States is the world's longest international land border. The country is characterized by a wide range of both Temperature in Canada, meteorologic and Geography of Canada, geological regions. With Population of Canada, a population of over 41million people, it has widely varying population densities, with the majority residing in List of the largest population centres in Canada, urban areas and large areas of the country being sparsely populated. Canada's capital is Ottawa and List of census metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Canada, ...
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Portland Canal
Portland Canal is an arm of Portland Inlet, one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is approximately long. The Portland Canal forms part of the border between southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The name of the entire inlet in the Nisga'a language is ', with meaning "at the back of (someplace)". The upper end of the inlet was home to the Tsetsaut ( in Nisgaʼa), who after being decimated by war and disease were taken under the protection of the Laxsgiik (Eagle) chief of the Nisgaʼa, who holds the inlet's title in native law. Despite its naming as a canal, the inlet is a fjord, a completely natural and not man-made geographic feature, and extends northward from the Portland Inlet at Pearse Island, British Columbia, to Stewart, British Columbia, and Hyder, Alaska. Observatory Inlet joins the Portland Canal at Ramsden Point, where both merge with Portland Inlet. Pearse Canal joins Portland Canal at the north end of Pearse Island. Portland C ...
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North Coast Of British Columbia
The British Columbia Coast, popularly referred to as the BC Coast or simply the Coast, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. As the entire western continental coastline of Canada along the Pacific Ocean is in the province, it is synonymous with being the West Coast of Canada. While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the region is generally defined to include the 15 regional districts that have coastline along the Pacific Ocean or Salish Sea, or are part of the Lower Mainland, a subregion of the British Columbia Coast. Other boundaries may exclude parts of or even entire regional districts, such as those of the aforementioned ''Lower Mainland''. Boundaries While the term ''British Columbia Coast'' has been recorded from the earliest period of non-native settlement in British Columbia, it has never been officially defined in legal terms. The term has historically been in popular usage for over a century to describe a region of the province t ...
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Extinct Languages Of North America
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. As a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. Over five billion species are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryotes globally, possibly many times more if microorganisms are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, and mammoths. Through evolution, species arise through the process of speciation. Species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superio ...
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Merritt Ruhlen
Merritt Ruhlen (May 10, 1944 – January 29, 2021) was an American linguist who worked on the classification of languages and what this reveals about the origin and evolution of modern humans. Amongst other linguists, Ruhlen's work was recognized as standing outside the mainstream of comparative-historical linguistics. He was the principal advocate and defender of Joseph Greenberg's approach to language classification. Biography Born Frank Merritt Ruhlen, 1944, Ruhlen studied at Rice University, the University of Paris, the University of Illinois and the University of Bucharest. He received his PhD in 1973 from Stanford University with a dissertation on the generative analysis of Romanian morphology. Subsequently, Ruhlen worked for several years as a research assistant on the Stanford Universals Project, directed by Joseph Greenberg and Charles Ferguson. From 1994, he was a lecturer in Anthropological Sciences and Human Biology at Stanford and co-director, along with Murray ...
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Sekani Language
The Sekani language or Tse’khene is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by 135 of the Sekani people of north-central British Columbia, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun .... Most of them are only semispeakers, and it is considered critically endangered. Phonology Consonants Sekani has 33 consonants: Vowels Tone Sekani has two tones: low and high. High tone is the more common tone. Syllables phonologically marked for tone are low. For example, means , while means . Nasalization Nasalization of vowels is phonemic. The root means , while the root means . Nasal vowels also contrast with vowels followed by . Orthography The orthography of the Kwadcha Tsek'ene dictionary uses the following letters. In addition, represents , represents , repr ...
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Tahltan Language
Tahltan, Tāłtān, also called Tałtan ẕāke ("Tahltan people language"), dah dẕāhge ("our language") or didene keh ("this people’s way") is a poorly documented and endangered Northern Athabaskan language spoken by 235 of the Tahltan, Tahltan people (also "Nahanni") who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, British Columbia, Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, British Columbia, Dease Lake, and Iskut, British Columbia, Iskut. Tahltan is a critically endangered language.Alderete, John forthcomingOn tone length in Tahltan (Northern Athabaskan). In: Hargus, Sharon and Keren Rice (eds.): ''Athabaskan Prosody''. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Several linguists classify Tahltan as a dialect of the same language as Tagish language, Tagish and Kaska language, Kaska (Krauss and Golla 1981, Mithun 1999). Language revitalization As of May 2013, language researcher Dr. Judy Thompson estimated that there are 30 Tahltan speakers. A new Language and Culture office ...
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Gitxsan
Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan and Kitksan) are an Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan territory encompasses approximately of land, from the basin of the upper Skeena River from about Legate Creek to the Skeena's headwaters and its surrounding tributaries. Part of the Tsimshianic language group, their culture is considered to be part of the civilization of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, although their territory lies in the Interior rather than on the Coast. They were at one time also known as the ''Interior Tsimshian'', a term which also included the Nisga'a, the Gitxsan's neighbours to the north. Their neighbours to the west are the Tsimshian (a.k.a. the Coast Tsimshian) while to the east the Wetʼsuwetʼen, an Athapaskan people, with whom they have a long and deep relationship and shared political and cu ...
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Nisga'a Language
Nisga’a (also Nisg̱a’a, Nass, Nisgha, Nishka, Niska, Nishga, Nisqa’a) is an indigenous language of northwestern British Columbia. It is a part of the language family generally called Tsimshianic, although some Nisga'a people resent the precedence the term gives to Coast Tsimshian. Nisga’a is very closely related to Gitxsan. Indeed, many linguists regard Nisga’a and Gitksan as dialects of a single Nass–Gitksan language. The two are generally treated as distinct languages out of deference to the political separation of the two groups. History and usage Like almost all other First Nations languages of British Columbia, Nisga’a is an endangered language. In the 2018 Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages, there were 311 fluent speakers and 294 active language learners reported in a population of 6,113. Anglican missionary James Benjamin McCullagh conducted much early linguistic work in Nisga’a, preparing translations of parts of the Bible and Boo ...
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Nisga'a
The Nisga’a (; ), formerly spelled Nishga or Niska, are an Indigenous people in British Columbia, Canada. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The origin of the term ''Niska'' is uncertain. The spelling ''Nishga'' is used by the Nishga Tribal Council, and some scholars claim that the term means 'people of the Nass River'. The name is a reduced form of , which is a loan word from Tongass Tlingit, where it means 'people of the Nass River'. The official languages of Nisg̱a’a are the Nisg̱a’a language and English. Culture Social Organization Nisga’a society is organized into four tribes: * Ganhada (G̱anada, Raven) * Gisḵ’aast (Gisḵ’aast, Killer Whale) * Laxgibuu (Lax̱gibuu, Wolf) * Laxsgiik (Lax̱sgiik, Eagle) Each tribe is further sub-divided into house groups – extended families with the same origins. Some houses are grouped together into clans – grouping of houses with same ancestors. Example: *Lax̱gibuu Trib ...
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Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical particularism and cultural relativism. Studying in Germany, Boas was awarded a doctorate in 1881 in physics while also studying geography. He then participated in a geographical expedition to northern Canada, where he became fascinated with the culture and language of the Baffin Island Inuit. He went on to do field work with the indigenous cultures and languages of the Pacific Northwest. In 1887 he emigrated to the United States, where he first worked as a museum curator at the Smithsonian, and in 1899 became a professor of anthropology at Columbia University, where he remained for the rest of his career. Through his students, many of whom went on to found anthropology departments and research programmes inspired ...
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Tsetsaut
The Tsetsaut (Nisga'a language: ''Jits'aawit''; in the Tsetsaut language: ''Wetaŀ'' or ''Wetaɬ'') were an Athabaskan-speaking group whose territory was around the head of the Portland Canal, straddling what is now the boundary between the US state of Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia. The name ''T'set'sa'ut'', meaning "those of the Interior", was used by the Nisga'a and Gitxsan in reference to their origin as migrants into the region from somewhere farther inland; their use of the term is not to the Tsetsaut alone but also can refer to the Tahltan and the Sekani. Other than Nisga'a stories about them, little is known about the Tsetsaut other than fragments of their language collected from two Tsetsaut slaves of the Nisga'a interviewed by Franz Boas in 1894. Demise In 1830 their numbers were estimated to be up to 500, at which point they were living in the Behm Canal, where they had been friendly with the ''Sanya kwaan'' of the Tlingit and Lakweip at which p ...
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