Tagish | |
---|---|
Tā̀gish | |
Native to | Canada |
Region | Northwest Territories, Yukon |
Ethnicity | Tagish people |
Extinct | 2008, with the death of Lucy Wren[1][2] |
Dené–Yeniseian?
| |
Latin script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tgx |
Glottolog | tagi1240 |
ELP | Tagish |
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]