9-685: The Tlikakila River ( Dena'ina Athabascan Łiq'a Qilanhtnu , literally "salmon-are-there river") is a stream, 51 miles (82 km) long, in the U.S. state of Alaska . The river, lying entirely within Lake Clark National Park , flows southwest from Summit Lake in the Chigmit Mountains of the Aleutian Range to Lake Clark . The Tlikakila is one of three national "wild rivers" in Lake Clark National Park. The other two are
18-433: A Dena'ina artist, Argent Kvasnikoff, created a custom alphabet for the language. Denaʼina is a polysynthetic language where a single word can mean the entirety of an English sentence. nu- again- n- you- t- FUT - n- see- gh- FUT - sh- I- l- CL - 'ił see/ FUT nu- n- t- n- gh- sh- l- 'ił again- you- FUT- see- FUT- I- CL- see/FUT "I will see you again." Verbs are
27-681: The Mulchatna and the Chilikadrotna , all added in 1980 to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System . Varying from Class I (easy) to III (difficult) on the International Scale of River Difficulty , the Tlikakila River is floatable by raft and kayak. The Alaska River Guide describes it as suitable for "intermediate boaters with good wilderness skills". To reach the floatable parts of
36-406: The collected writings of Peter Kalifornsky in 1991. Joan M. Tenenbaum also conducted extensive field research on the language in the 1970s. The word Denaʼina is composed of the dena , meaning 'person' and the human plural suffix ina . While the apostrophe which joins the two parts of this word ordinarily indicates a glottal stop, most speakers pronounce this with a diphthong, so that
45-555: The e is considered a reduced vowel similar to the English schwa . In the Inland dialect, syllables at the end of a semantic unit are often longer, lower in pitch, and have longer rhymes. The onset of a syllable has consonant clusters of up to three, such as CCCVC, though these are rare and more commonly, a syllable onset is one or two consonants. Dena'ina uses a variant of the Latin alphabet, though
54-517: The most elaborate part of speech in the Denaʼina language, which vary in verb paradigms which vary by subject, object, or aspect. The following example is of -lan the verb "to be" in the imperfective aspect and in the Nondalton dialect. esh lan esh lan I am ch'i lan ch'i lan we are in lan in lan you are eh lan eh lan you all are n lan n lan he/she/it
63-456: The region surrounding Cook Inlet . It is geographically unique in Alaska as the only Alaska Athabaskan language to include territory which borders salt water. Four dialects are usually distinguished: Of the total Denaʼina population of about 900 people, only 75–95 members still speak Denaʼina. James Kari has done extensive work on the language since 1972, including his edition with Alan Boraas of
72-522: The river from Summit Lake, boaters must make a 2-mile (3 km) portage . Dangers include Class III rapids, which may require a second portage below the confluence with the North Fork Tlikakila River. Bears pose another danger, as does quicksand on the lower river. Dena%E2%80%99ina language Denaʼina / d ɪ ˈ n aɪ n ə / , also Tanaina , is the Athabaskan language of
81-477: The second syllable of the word rhymes with English 'nine' (as in the older spelling Tanaina ). Denaʼina is one of seven Alaska Athabaskan languages which does not distinguish phonemic tone. The consonants of Denaʼina in practical orthography, with IPA equivalents. The 4 vowels of Denaʼina. Close vowels are more open in the environment of a uvular consonant. Generally, the vowels i, a, and u are considered 'long' vowels and are fully pronounced in words, however
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