Tagish language

Tagish
Tā̀gish
Native toCanada
RegionNorthwest Territories, Yukon
EthnicityTagish people
Extinct2008, with the death of Lucy Wren[1][2]
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3tgx
Glottologtagi1240
ELPTagish
Tagish is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Tagish is an extinct language spoken by the Tagish or Carcross-Tagish, a First Nations people that historically lived in the Northwest Territories and Yukon in Canada. The name Tagish derives from /ta:gizi dene/, or "Tagish people", which is how they refer to themselves, where /ta:gizi/ is a place name meaning "it (spring ice) is breaking up.[3]

The language is a Northern Athabaskan language, closely related to Tahltan and Kaska. The three languages are often grouped together as Tahltan-Kaska-Tagish; the three languages are considered dialects of the same language by some.[4] As of 2004, there was only 1 native fluent speaker of Tagish documented: Lucy Wren (Agaymā/Ghùch Tlâ).[5] She died in 2008.[6]

  1. ^ "Lucy Wren • Biography". Archived from the original on 2011-05-24.
  2. ^ Tagish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. ^ Yinka Déné Language Institute. (2006). The Tagish Language. https://www.ydli.org/langs/tagish.htm
  4. ^ Alderete, J., Blenkiron, A., &Thompson, J. E. (2014). Some notes on stem phonology and the development of affricates in Tahltan (Northern Athabaskan). Ms., Simon Fraser University and Northwest Community College.
  5. ^ Greenaway, J. (2006, November 08). Tagish First Voices Project. http://www.firstvoices.com/en/Tagish/welcome
  6. ^ "Carcross elder steps forward to continue language work of mother and sister". Yukon News. 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2021-05-05.