Learning Lingit, the Tlingit Language

After I wrote two posts about constructed languages, How To Make a Constructed Language Sound Natural and Constructed Language for Fantasy Fiction – Words, my interest grew in the language of the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska. I grew up among the people but only learned one or two words of the language.

The language was suppressed in the native schools in the first half of the 20th century. It was still spoken in homes, but by 2000, there were only about 500 native speakers. There has been an effort to revitalize the language, including making it an official language of Alaska. In 2013, the University of Alaska Southeast began classes taught by X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell. I have been watching the videos recording of classes from 2014 on YouTube.

The most difficult part so far is pronouncing the consonants. There are thirty-nine or forty-seven consonants, depending on which linguist you ask. The classes I am watching list thirty-nine.

Thirty-nine consonants are enough, considering English has only twenty-four. Add to the fact that Lingit has no labial consonants. That is, they don’t use p, b, f, or v. Some dialects use ‘m’, but not in Alaska.

Uvular Consonants in the Tlingit Language

Many of the remaining consonants are difficult for an native English speaker. Many of them are pronounced deep in the throat (uvular consonants). The basic forms are ḵ, g̱, and x̱ (qʰ, ɢ, and χ in IPA). The underlines in the letters indicate the uvular pronunciation. In some orthographies, the underline is replaced by ‘h’ (kh, gh, and xh). The sounds are similar to the velar k, g, and x (kʰ, ɡ, and x in IPA), but pronounced deeper in the throat. (Underlines in the IPA letters indicate a link to a wikipedia article.)

Practicing uvular consonants can be difficult for a speaker of a language that doesn’t use them, i.e. English. Arabic speakers use the g̱ as in the q in Qatar. Germans and Dutch use χ for /ch/ in some situation and /r/ in some dialects. Practicing it can be hard on the throat if the speaker isn’t used to uvular consonants. In the class I watched on YouTube, the teacher said that practicing can cause a sore throat for new students.

Labialization in the Tlingit Language

Adding to the complexity, the velar (k, g, and x) and uvular (ḵ, g̱, and x̱) consonants and their ejective counterparts (k’, x’, ḵ’, and x̱’) also have labialized versions. These consonants are pronounced like their non-labialized versions, but the lips are rounded when the sound is made. In English, it is the difference between ‘height’ and ‘white’, ‘hut’ and ‘what’.

Ejective Consonants

In addition, the Tlingit language uses ejectives, which is a small puff of air created in the throat rather than in the lungs. It is not common in English, but some speakers, especially British, use an ejective on a consonant at the end of a word to emphasize that word.

Lingit speakers use ejectives on almost all consonants (t’, ts’, tl’, ch’, k’, k’w, ḵ’, ḵ’w, s’, l’, x’, x̱’ and x̱’w). They are not used on voiced consonants (d, dl, dz, g, g̱, and the glottal stop) and h, j, n, sh, and w. Ejective consonants will change the meaning of a word. For example, the verb root X̱EEN (fall) is different from the noun x̱’éen (wall screen).

Again, ejective consonants are difficult for an English speaker to learn without hearing and practicing them. This is especially true when the ejective is combined with the uvular consonants (ḵ’ and x̱’). I’ve been practicing at home. At one point, my wife heard me and asked if I was OK. She thought I was choking on something when I was simply practicing x̱’. It literally sounds like clearing the throat.

More evocative are the letters g̱ and x̱. They sound like the caw of a raven, which is appropriate for a culture that identifies so closely with the raven. G̱áa! X̱áa!