Na-Dene

or Na·de·ne or Na-De·né

[ nah-dey-nee, nah-dey-ney ]

noun

1. a group of North American Indian languages, comprising the Athabascan family, Eyak, Tlingit, and Haida, hypothetically considered to be descendants of a single protolanguage: the genetic relationship of either Tlingit or Haida to Athabascan and Eyak is now disputed.
2. the hypothesized protolanguage itself.

adjective

1. of, belonging to, or pertaining to Na-Dene.

Na-Dene

/ nəˈdiːn; nɑːˈdeɪnɪ /

noun

1. a phylum of North American Indian languages including Athapascan, Tlingit, and Haida

Word History and Origins

Origin of Na-Dene¹

First recorded in 1915; name coined by Edward Sapir from assumed reflexes of a single Na-Dene root: Haida na “to live, house,” Tlingit na “people,” unattested Athabascan -ne in dene, representing a word in Athabascan languages for “person, people,” e.g., Navajo diné

Word History and Origins

Origin of Na-Dene¹

from Haida na to dwell + Athapascan dene people; coined by Edward Sapir (1884–1939), American anthropologist

Example Sentences

The researchers also study how these ancient peoples are related to modern populations who speak Eskimo-Aleut, Na-Dene and other languages.

From Nature

This tangled family tree underpins the ancestry of modern speakers of indigenous Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut languages.

From Science Magazine

With the exception of the Eskimo-Aleut language family of the American Arctic and the Na-Dene language family of Alaska, northwestern Canada, and the U.S.

From Literature

Using glottochronology he estimated that the ancestors of Aleuts had crossed the strait around 2000 b.c. and that the ancestors of Na-Dene had made the journey around 7000 B.C.

From Literature

The eastward group reached North America and became the Na-Dene speakers, while the westward group returned to Siberia and settled along the Yenisei River.

From New York Times