Na-Dené languages
Encyclopedia
Na-Dene is a Native American
language family
which includes at least the Athabaskan languages
, Eyak
, and Tlingit
languages. An inclusion of Haida
is controversial.
In February 2008 a proposal relating Na-Dene (excluding Haida) to the Yeniseian languages
of central Siberia
was published and well received by a number of linguists.
originally constructed the term Na-Dene to refer to a combined family of Athabaskan, Tlingit, and Haida. (The existence of Eyak was not known at the time.) In his “The Na-Dene languages: A preliminary report”, he describes how he arrived at the term (Sapir 1915, p. 558):
For linguists who follow Edward Sapir
in connecting Haida to the above languages, the Haida isolate represents an additional branch, with Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit together forming the other. Dene
or Dine (the Athabaskan languages) is a widely distributed group of Native languages spoken by associated peoples in Alberta
, British Columbia
, Manitoba
, Northwest Territories
, Nunavut
, Saskatchewan
, Yukon
, Alaska
, parts of Oregon
, northern California
, and the American Southwest as far as northern Mexico
.
The southwestern division of Athabaskan is also called Southern Athabaskan or Apachean, and includes Navajo
and all the Apache
dialects. Eyak
was spoken in south-central Alaska; the last speaker died in 2008. Navajo
is by far the most widely spoken language of the Na-Dene family, spoken in Arizona
, New Mexico
, and other regions of the American Southwest.
The phoneme system contains a large number of guttural (velar or uvular) consonants (fronting in many modern Athabaskan languages to palatals and velars, correspondingly) as well as a general absence of labial obstruents (except where /b/ has arisen from *w). In the historical phonology there is a widespread tendency, observable across many Athabaskan languages, for phonemic tonal distinctions to arise from glottal features originally found at the end of the syllable. The glottal features in question are often evident in Eyak or Tlingit. These languages are typologically unusual in containing extensive prefixation yet being SOV and postpositional, features normally associated with suffixing languages.
Notes:
, with 15 fluent speakers (M. Krauss, 1995), was originally linked to Tlingit by Franz Boas
in 1894. Both Haida and Tlingit were then connected to Athabaskan by Edward Sapir in 1915. Linguists such as Lyle Campbell
(1997) today consider the evidence inconclusive. They have classified Haida as a language isolate
. In order to emphasise the exclusion of Haida, Campbell refers to the language family as Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit rather than Na-Dene. In 2010 Jeff Leer has published extensive primary materials on what he calls PAET (Proto-Athabascan–Eyak–Tlingit).
of Western Washington University
in 2008 presented compelling evidence that the Na-Dene languages (Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit) are related to Yeniseian
(or Yeniseic) languages of Siberia
, the only living representative of which is the Ket language
. This evidence provides a geographic source of origin for the widely recognized third migration of peoples to North America, who formed part of its ancient prehistoric indigenous peoples.
Key evidence by current comparative methodologies includes homologies in verb prefixes and also a systematic correspondence between the distribution of Ket tones and consonant articulations found in Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit. Vajda's paper has been favorably reviewed by several experts on Na-Dene and Yeniseic languages, including Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari
, and Heinrich Werner, as well as a number of other well-known linguists, including Bernard Comrie
, Johanna Nichols
, Victor Golla, Michael Fortescue
, and Eric Hamp
. The conclusion of this seminar was that the comparison with Yeniseic data shows that Haida cannot be classified in a genealogical unit with Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit.
's controversial classification of the languages of Native North America, Na-Dené (including Haida as well as Athabaskan–Eyak + Tlingit) is one of the three main groups of Native languages spoken in the Americas. It represents a distinct wave of migration from Asia to the Americas. The genealogical relationship of Tlingit, Eyak and Athabaskan is widely accepted, while the inclusion of Haida remains controversial. The other two families recognized by Greenberg for the Americas are the widely accepted Eskimo–Aleut family, spoken in Siberia, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic and Greenland
; and the far less widely accepted Amerind
, Greenberg's most controversial classification, which includes every language native to the Americas that is not Eskimo–Aleut or Na-Dené.
Contemporary supporters of Greenberg's theory, such as Merritt Ruhlen
, have suggested that the Na-Dené language family represents a distinct migration of people from Asia
to the New World. Ruhlen claims this migration occurred six to eight thousand years ago, placing it around four thousand years later than the previous migration into the Americas by Amerind speakers. Ruhlen speculates that the Na-Dené speakers may have arrived in boats, initially settling near the Queen Charlotte Islands
, now in British Columbia
, Canada
.
According to Sergei Starostin
and his followers, Na-Dené (including Haida) belongs to the much broader Dené–Caucasian superfamily, which also contains the North Caucasian languages
, Sino-Tibetan languages
, and Yeniseian languages
. Some of the links subsumed by the Dené–Caucasian proposal were suggested much earlier. Linguist Edward Sapir
considered the hypothesis that Sino-Tibetan is genealogically related to Na-Dené nearly a century ago.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
which includes at least the Athabaskan languages
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...
, Eyak
Eyak language
Eyak is an extinct Na-Dené language that was historically spoken by the Eyak people, indigenous to southcentral Alaska, near the mouth of the Copper River.The closest relatives of Eyak are the Athabaskan languages...
, and Tlingit
Tlingit language
The Tlingit language ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very endangered, with fewer than 140 native speakers still living, all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English...
languages. An inclusion of Haida
Haida language
The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. It contains seven vowels and well over 30 consonants.-History:The first documented contact between the Haida and Europeans was in 1774, on Juan Pérez's exploratory voyage. At this time Haidas inhabited the Queen Charlotte Islands, Dall...
is controversial.
In February 2008 a proposal relating Na-Dene (excluding Haida) to the Yeniseian languages
Yeniseian languages
The Yeniseian language family is spoken in central Siberia.-Family division:0. Proto-Yeniseian...
of central Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
was published and well received by a number of linguists.
The name
Edward SapirEdward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
originally constructed the term Na-Dene to refer to a combined family of Athabaskan, Tlingit, and Haida. (The existence of Eyak was not known at the time.) In his “The Na-Dene languages: A preliminary report”, he describes how he arrived at the term (Sapir 1915, p. 558):
Family division
In its non-controversial core, Na-Dene consists of two branches, Tlingit and Athabaskan–Eyak:- TlingitTlingit languageThe Tlingit language ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very endangered, with fewer than 140 native speakers still living, all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English...
: 700 speakers (Michael Krauss, 1995) - Athabaskan–Eyak
- EyakEyak languageEyak is an extinct Na-Dené language that was historically spoken by the Eyak people, indigenous to southcentral Alaska, near the mouth of the Copper River.The closest relatives of Eyak are the Athabaskan languages...
: extinct in 2008 - AthabaskanAthabaskan languagesAthabaskan 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...
- NorthernNorthern Athabaskan languagesNorthern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska and the Yukon...
- Pacific CoastPacific Coast Athabaskan languagesPacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family.-California Athabaskan:Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family....
- SouthernSouthern Athabaskan languagesSouthern Athabaskan is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the North American Southwest with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas...
- Northern
- Eyak
For linguists who follow Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
in connecting Haida to the above languages, the Haida isolate represents an additional branch, with Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit together forming the other. Dene
Dene
The Dene are an aboriginal group of First Nations who live in the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dené speak Northern Athabaskan languages. Dene is the common Athabaskan word for "people" . The term "Dene" has two usages...
or Dine (the Athabaskan languages) is a widely distributed group of Native languages spoken by associated peoples in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
, Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
, 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...
, parts of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and the American Southwest as far as northern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
The southwestern division of Athabaskan is also called Southern Athabaskan or Apachean, and includes Navajo
Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
and all the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
dialects. Eyak
Eyak
The Eyak are an indigenous group traditionally located on the Copper River Delta and near the town of Cordova, Alaska.-Territory:The Eyak's territory reached from present day Cordova east to the Martin River and north to Miles Glacier....
was spoken in south-central Alaska; the last speaker died in 2008. Navajo
Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
is by far the most widely spoken language of the Na-Dene family, spoken in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, and other regions of the American Southwest.
Typological profile of Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit
All of these languages share a highly complex prefixing verb structure in which tense and mood markers are interdigitated between subject and object agreement markers. The morphological hallmark of the family is a series of prefixes found directly before the verb root that raise or lower the transitivity of the verb word. These prefixes, traditionally known as "classifiers", derive historically from a combination of three distinct classes of morphemes and are not found in any other Native American language family.The phoneme system contains a large number of guttural (velar or uvular) consonants (fronting in many modern Athabaskan languages to palatals and velars, correspondingly) as well as a general absence of labial obstruents (except where /b/ has arisen from *w). In the historical phonology there is a widespread tendency, observable across many Athabaskan languages, for phonemic tonal distinctions to arise from glottal features originally found at the end of the syllable. The glottal features in question are often evident in Eyak or Tlingit. These languages are typologically unusual in containing extensive prefixation yet being SOV and postpositional, features normally associated with suffixing languages.
Obstruent Correspondences
| Obstruent Correspondences | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAET | PAE | PA | Eyak | Tlingit | |
| Normal | L-assim. | ||||
| d | d | d | d | d | |
| dʒ | dʒ | dʒ | dʒ | dʒ | ? |
| ɡʲ | dz | [dz], s~z | dz | ɡ | |
| ɡ | ɡ | ɡʲ | ɡ | ɡ(ʷ) | |
| ɡʷ | ɡʷ | ɖʐ | ɡʷ > ɡ | ||
| ɢ | ɢ | ɢ | ɢ | ɢ(ʷ) | |
| ɢʷ | ɢʷ | ɢʷ > ɢ | |||
| t | t | t | t | t | |
| tʃ | tʃ | tʃ | tʃ | tʃ (ts) | tɬ |
| ts | ts | ts | ts | ts | tɬ |
| kʲ | k, ʃ | ||||
| k | k | kʲ | k | k(ʷ) | |
| kʷ | kʷ | ʈʂ | kʷ > k | ||
| q | q | q | q | q(ʷ) | |
| qʷ | qʷ | qʷ > q | |||
| tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | tʼ | |
| tɬʼ | tɬʼ | tɬʼ | tɬʼ | ɬʼ, tɬʼ | |
| tʃʼ | tʃʼ | tʃʼ | tʃʼ | sʼ, tʃʼ (tsʼ) | tɬʼ |
| tsʼ | tsʼ | tsʼ | tsʼ | sʼ, tsʼ | tɬʼ, ɬ |
| kʼʲ | kʼ | ||||
| kʼ | kʼ | kʼʲ | kʼ | xʼ(ʷ), kʼ(ʷ) | |
| kʼʷ | kʼʷ | ʈʂʼ | kʼʷ > kʼ | ||
| qʼ | qʼ | qʼ | qʼ | χʼ(ʷ) | |
| qʼʷ | qʼʷ | qʼʷ > qʼ | qʼ | χʼ, qʼ(ʷ) | |
| ɬ | ɬ | ɬ~l | ɬ | ɬ | |
| ʃ | ʃ | ʂ~ʐ | ʃ (s) | ʃ (s) | ɬ |
| s | s | s~z | s | s | ʃ |
| xʲ | s; ʃ | x | |||
| x | x | xʲ~j | x | ||
| xʷ | xʷ | ʂ~ʐ | xʷ > x | ||
| χ | χ | χ~ʁ | χ | χ(ʷ) | |
| χʷ | χʷ | χʷ > χ~ʁ | χʷ | ||
| Extrasystematic fricative correspondences | |||||
| sx | x | xʲ~j | x | s | |
| ʃx | x | xʲ~j | ʃ | ʃ | |
| $ | x(ʷ) ? | $ (ʃ~xʲ) | xʷ > x; s | χ | |
Notes:
- PAET, PAE and PA stand for Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit, Proto-Athabaskan–Eyak and Proto-Athabaskan, respectively.
- To prevent cluttering the table, phonemes in the PAET, PAE and PA columns are not asterisked.
- Leer (2008, 2010) doesn't reconstruct the PAET affricates */dɮ/, */tɬ/ and */dz/. Judging from their rarity, he assumes they may be attributable to the resolution of former consonant clusters.
- In Athabaskan and Eyak, sibilants can be diminutive variants of shibilants. In Tlingit, on the other hand, shibilants might sometimes be diminutive variants of sibilants. These correspondences are in parentheses.
Proposals of deeper genealogical relations involving Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit
A genealogical connection between the Tlingit, Eyak and Athabaskan languages was suggested early in the 19th century, but not universally accepted until much later. HaidaHaida language
The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. It contains seven vowels and well over 30 consonants.-History:The first documented contact between the Haida and Europeans was in 1774, on Juan Pérez's exploratory voyage. At this time Haidas inhabited the Queen Charlotte Islands, Dall...
, with 15 fluent speakers (M. Krauss, 1995), was originally linked to Tlingit by Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
in 1894. Both Haida and Tlingit were then connected to Athabaskan by Edward Sapir in 1915. Linguists such as Lyle Campbell
Lyle Campbell
Lyle Richard Campbell is a linguist and leading expert on indigenous American languages—especially those of Mesoamerica—and on historical linguistics in general. He also has expertise in Uralic languages. He is presently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.-Life and...
(1997) today consider the evidence inconclusive. They have classified Haida as a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. In order to emphasise the exclusion of Haida, Campbell refers to the language family as Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit rather than Na-Dene. In 2010 Jeff Leer has published extensive primary materials on what he calls PAET (Proto-Athabascan–Eyak–Tlingit).
Dené–Yeniseian
Edward VajdaEdward Vajda
Edward Vajda is a historical linguist at Western Washington University. He has become known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, seeking to establish that the Ket language of Siberia has a common linguistic ancestor with the Na-Dené languages of North America...
of Western Washington University
Western Washington University
Western Washington University is one of six state-funded, four-year universities of higher education in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in Bellingham and offers bachelor's and master's degrees.-History:...
in 2008 presented compelling evidence that the Na-Dene languages (Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit) are related to Yeniseian
Yeniseian languages
The Yeniseian language family is spoken in central Siberia.-Family division:0. Proto-Yeniseian...
(or Yeniseic) languages of Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, the only living representative of which is the Ket language
Ket language
The Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language long thought to be an isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family...
. This evidence provides a geographic source of origin for the widely recognized third migration of peoples to North America, who formed part of its ancient prehistoric indigenous peoples.
Key evidence by current comparative methodologies includes homologies in verb prefixes and also a systematic correspondence between the distribution of Ket tones and consonant articulations found in Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit. Vajda's paper has been favorably reviewed by several experts on Na-Dene and Yeniseic languages, including Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari
James Kari
James Kari is a linguist and Professor Emeritus with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks , specializing in Athabascan languages of Alaska. In the past thirty-five years he has done extensive linguistic work in many Athabascan languages including Ahtna, Dena'ina,...
, and Heinrich Werner, as well as a number of other well-known linguists, including Bernard Comrie
Bernard Comrie
Bernard Comrie is a British-born linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology and linguistic universals, and on Caucasian languages....
, Johanna Nichols
Johanna Nichols
Linguist Johanna Nichols is a professor emerita on active duty in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include the Slavic languages, the linguistic prehistory of northern Eurasia, language typology, ancient linguistic...
, Victor Golla, Michael Fortescue
Michael Fortescue
Michael David Fortescue is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht. He is professor of General Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen and chairman of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen...
, and Eric Hamp
Eric P. Hamp
Eric Pratt Hamp is an American linguist. Born in London, England on November 16, 1920, he grew up in The United States from age 5 onward due to his father's posting by a British shipping firm...
. The conclusion of this seminar was that the comparison with Yeniseic data shows that Haida cannot be classified in a genealogical unit with Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit.
Other proposals
According to Joseph GreenbergJoseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
's controversial classification of the languages of Native North America, Na-Dené (including Haida as well as Athabaskan–Eyak + Tlingit) is one of the three main groups of Native languages spoken in the Americas. It represents a distinct wave of migration from Asia to the Americas. The genealogical relationship of Tlingit, Eyak and Athabaskan is widely accepted, while the inclusion of Haida remains controversial. The other two families recognized by Greenberg for the Americas are the widely accepted Eskimo–Aleut family, spoken in Siberia, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic and Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
; and the far less widely accepted Amerind
Amerind languages
Amerind is a higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language families, the previously established Eskimo–Aleut and Na–Dene, and with everything else—almost universally believed...
, Greenberg's most controversial classification, which includes every language native to the Americas that is not Eskimo–Aleut or Na-Dené.
Contemporary supporters of Greenberg's theory, such as Merritt Ruhlen
Merritt Ruhlen
Merritt Ruhlen is an American linguist known for his work on the classification of languages and what this reveals about the origin and evolution of modern humans. Amongst other linguists, Ruhlen's work is recognized as standing outside the mainstream of comparative-historical linguistics...
, have suggested that the Na-Dené language family represents a distinct migration of people from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to the New World. Ruhlen claims this migration occurred six to eight thousand years ago, placing it around four thousand years later than the previous migration into the Americas by Amerind speakers. Ruhlen speculates that the Na-Dené speakers may have arrived in boats, initially settling near the Queen Charlotte Islands
Queen Charlotte Islands
Haida Gwaii , formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island in the north, and Moresby Island in the south, along with approximately 150 smaller islands with a total landmass of...
, now in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
According to Sergei Starostin
Sergei Starostin
Dr. Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin was a Russian historical linguist and scholar, best known for his work with hypothetical proto-languages, including his work on the reconstruction of the Proto-Borean language, the controversial theory of Altaic languages and the formulation of the Dené–Caucasian...
and his followers, Na-Dené (including Haida) belongs to the much broader Dené–Caucasian superfamily, which also contains the North Caucasian languages
North Caucasian languages
North Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two language phyla spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey: the Northwest Caucasian family and the Northeast Caucasian family North Caucasian languages (sometimes called simply Caucasic as opposed to Kartvelian, and to avoid confusion with...
, Sino-Tibetan languages
Sino-Tibetan languages
The Sino-Tibetan languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers...
, and Yeniseian languages
Yeniseian languages
The Yeniseian language family is spoken in central Siberia.-Family division:0. Proto-Yeniseian...
. Some of the links subsumed by the Dené–Caucasian proposal were suggested much earlier. Linguist Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
considered the hypothesis that Sino-Tibetan is genealogically related to Na-Dené nearly a century ago.