This website is dedicated to the study, preservation
and revitalization of the Tlingit language.
What is Tlingit?
Tlingit, or Lingít, is the ancestral language of the Tlingit
people. The traditional home of the Tlingits is the coast of what
is now southeast Alaska, stretching from west of Yakutat down to Ketchikan.
There are also many Tlingits who hail from the interior, in adjacent
parts of northern British Columbia and the southern Yukon Territory, particularly
the towns of Teslin, Carcross, and Atlin. Today, you will also find
many Tlingits living in the larger towns and cities on the west coast,
from Anchorage to Seattle and down to San Francisco, as well as Whitehorse
in the Yukon.
How many people speak Tlingit?
Unfortunately, Tlingit is a highly endangered language. Although
it is difficult to come up with hard and fast numbers, there are between
200 to 400 fluent Tlingit speakers in the United States, and perhaps another
100 or so in Canada. Here is the somewhat outdated report on Tlingit
available from
Ethnologue.
Do all Tlingits speak the same dialect?
Given the fact that Tlingit is spoken over such a wide territory,
it is not surprising that there are a number of different dialects of the
language. The main difference is between Northern Tlingit, Southern
Tlingit and the now nearly extinct dialect of
Tongass
Tlingit. Nonetheless, fluent speakers of Tlingit have little
trouble understanding each other, no matter which dialect they come from.
Where can I learn to speak Tlingit?
Sealaska Heritage Institute
offers intensive two week classes in Tlingit each summer during their
Kusteeyí Workshops in Ketchikan and/or Juneau. SHI
also offers several Tlingit immersion retreats throughout the
year. Tlingit is also taught on a regular basis at the Juneau
campus of the
University of Alaska
Southeast. Other classes can often be found in Tlingit communities
such as Klukwan and Angoon.
Also, there's several very
good books about the Tlingit language.
Interested in other Southeast Alaska Native languages?
Please visit our sister sites:
www.haidalanguage.org and
www.tsimshianlanguage.org
Still have more questions?
Email us, or join our
Tlingit language discussion list and
pose your question to our list members.
