Lower Tanana is an endangered

Endangered language

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....

 Athabaskan

Athabaskan languages

Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...

 language spoken in Interior Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 in the lower Tanana River

Tanana River

The Tanana River is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon tene no, tenene, literally "trail river"....

 villages of Minto

Minto, Alaska

Minto is a census-designated place in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the CDP is 258. The name is an anglicized version of the Lower Tanana Athabaskan name Menh Ti, meaning 'among the lakes'. After repeated flooding the village was...

 and Nenana

Nenana, Alaska

Nenana is a Home Rule City in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. Nenana lies at the juncture of the Nenana River and the Tanana River. The population was 402 at the 2000 census. "Nenana" means 'a good place to camp between two rivers.'-History...

. Of about 380 Tanana people in the two villages, about 30 still speak the language. The Athabascan bands that formerly extended between the Salcha and the Goodpaster Rivers spoke a distinct dialect that can be termed the Middle Tanana language.

Dialects

• Toklat area dialect: (Tutlʼot)
• Minto Flats-Nenana River dialect: Minto (Menhti) and Nenana (Nina Noʼ )
• Chena River dialect: Chena Village (Chʼenoʼ )
• Salcha River dialect: Salcha (Sol Chaget)

Examples

• dena man
• trʼaxa woman
• setseya my grandfather
• setsu my grandmother
• xwtʼana clan
• ddheł mountain
• tu water
• sresr black bear
• bedzeyh caribou
• łiga dog
• beligaʼ his/her dog
• kʼwyʼ willow
• katreth mocassin
• trʼiyh canoe
• yoyekoyh Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)