Hän language

This article is about the Athabaskan language. For the language of the Han people of China, see Chinese language. For for the ancient language family in Korea, see Han languages. For the language with ISO 639 code han, see Hangaza language.

Hän (alternatively spelled as Haen) (also known as Han-Kutchin) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Hän Hwëch'in (translated to people who live along the river, sometimes anglicized as Hankutchin). The Hän language is spoken and supported by the Hän nation across localized communities who, since time immemorial, have lived in what is today called the Upper Yukon region; The village of Eagle, Alaska, in the United States; the town of Dawson City, Yukon Territory, in Canada; as well as Fairbanks^[4][5] and Tanacross in Alaska.

Hän
Häł gołan
Pronunciation	[hɑɬ goɬæn]
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	Alaska (United States), Yukon (Canada)
Ethnicity	Hän people
Native speakers	5 in Alaska, 1 in Yukon (2020)[1][2]
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Hän
Writing system	Latin (Dené alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Alaska[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	haa
Glottolog	hann1241
ELP	Han
Han is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Hän is today considered to have two dialects; the Eagle Dialect, named for its use Eagle Village, and the Moosehide dialect, named for Moosehide, a traditional village of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation in the Yukon.

Hän is in the Northern Athabaskan subgrouping of the Na-Dené language family. It is most closely related to Gwich'in and Upper Tanana.^[5] Hän is sometimes referred to as a ʼHead Waters Athabaskanʼ language, an informal grouping that includes Hän, Gwichʼin, Northern Tutchone, Southern Tutchone, and Upper Tanana.

The decline of the Hän language is due in large part to a mass migration of 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon (the ʼKlondike Gold Rush) in 1898^[5] and immense precarity and violence endured by its communities that is perpetuated today through colonial occupation by Canada and the United States.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Hän are listed below with IPA notation on the left, the Moosehide dialect orthography in ⟨brackets⟩:^[5]

Consonants

		Labial	Inter- dental	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
				central	sibilant	lateral
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p ⟨b⟩	tθ ⟨ddh⟩	t ⟨d⟩	ts ⟨dz⟩	tɬ ⟨dl⟩	tʃ ⟨j⟩	ʈʂ ⟨dr⟩	k ⟨g⟩	ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
	aspirated	(pʰ ⟨p⟩)	tθʰ ⟨tth⟩	tʰ ⟨t⟩	tsʰ ⟨ts⟩	tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩	tʃʰ ⟨ch⟩	ʈʂʰ ⟨tr⟩	kʰ ⟨k⟩
	ejective		tθʼ ⟨tth’⟩	tʼ ⟨t’⟩	tsʼ ⟨ts’⟩	tɬʼ ⟨tl’⟩	tʃʼ ⟨ch’⟩	ʈʂʼ ⟨tr’⟩	kʼ ⟨k’⟩
	prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩		ⁿd ⟨nd⟩			ⁿdʒ ⟨nj⟩
Fricative	voiceless		θ ⟨th⟩		s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨ł⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩	ʂ ⟨sr⟩	x ⟨kh⟩	h ⟨h⟩
	voiced		ð ⟨dh⟩		z ⟨z⟩	ɮ ⟨l⟩	ʒ ⟨zh⟩	ʐ ⟨zr⟩	ɣ ⟨gh⟩
Sonorant	voiced	m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩		l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩	ɻ ⟨r⟩	w ⟨w⟩
	voiceless			n̥ ⟨nh⟩			j̊ ⟨yh⟩	ɻ̥ ⟨rh⟩	w̥ ⟨wh⟩

Vowels

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i ⟨i⟩	iː ⟨ii⟩			u ⟨u⟩	uː ⟨uu⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨e⟩	eː ⟨ee⟩			o ⟨o⟩	oː ⟨oo⟩
Mid			ə ⟨ë⟩	əː ⟨ëë⟩
Open	æ ⟨a⟩	æː ⟨aa⟩			ɑ ⟨ä⟩	ɑː ⟨ää⟩
Diphthongs	æu ⟨aw⟩   æi ⟨ay⟩   ɑu ⟨äw⟩   eu ⟨ew⟩   ei ⟨ey⟩   iu ⟨iw⟩   oi ⟨oy⟩

Nasal vowels are marked orthographically in Hän, and all of the monophthong vowels can be either oral or nasal. Nasal vowels are written with a small tail (akin to the Polish ogonek) at the bottom of the vowel, so, for instance, nasal /ẽ/ is written as ⟨ę⟩.^[6]

Revitalization

There are fewer than a dozen first language speakers of Hän, all of whom are elderly^[7] though there is a growing second-language speaker community.

The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in (formerly known as the Dawson First Nation) in the Yukon Territory support the revitalization of Hän, and there are current efforts to revive the language locally. There is an effort to promote traditional skills and finding a balance between the way of the newcomer's which further promotes the development and revitalization of the language.^[4] As of April 2024, the last fluent speaker of Hän in Yukon, a 96-year-old elder, died.^[8]

Since 1991, the Robert Service School in Dawson City has hosted the Hän Language program, and the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in supports adult language classes and bi-annual cultural gatherings.^[5]

There are many other resources used to learn Hän, particularly online ones such as, FirstVoices and Yukon Native Learning Centre. These online learning language tools teach the tradition, culture, history, and the language of Hän.