The Athabaskan Languages: Perspectives on a Native American Language Family

The Athabaskan language family constitutes the largest group of Amerindian languages in North America, stretching from Alaska, through the Pacific Northwest, and to the Southwestern states. It includes languages like Navajo and Apache, as well as many lesser known. Over the years Athabaskan has posed a number of challenges for theorists in all areas of linguistics, and has also been the subject of much recent attention - none of which has been collected before now. This volume is a collection of previously unpublished articles on Athabaskan syntax, semantics, and morphology, and will be of interest not only to those with a anthropological interest in North American languages, but also to theoretical linguists concerned with the issues discussed. The book will also be useful in that it directly confronts the problems facing languages like Navajo as they struggle to survive; the list of contributors thus brings together not only prominent linguists (include Navajos) but educators as well.