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Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🦱 An Indigenous group 🗣️ A language group
Athabaskan

Athabaskan

9.9
A Native American person who speaks a related western North American language, often living in Alaska or Canada
  • noun
  • /ˌæθəˈbæskən/
translation icon : indígena atabascan
  • The Athabaskan people have rich cultural traditions that are still practiced today.
  • Athabaskan Indians

Examples

  • It's almost as if, in the same way that we can hear the voices of a character when we read a novel, my experience with Athabaskan peoples in northern Canada or the Penan, it's almost like the flight of a bird becomes a cursive script of nature, like a vocabulary written on the wind.

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  • Many Athabaskan groups inhabit the vast forests of northern Canada.

  • Historically, the Athabaskan tribes relied heavily on fishing and hunting for sustenance.

Synonyms

Athapaskan
vsAthabaskan
9.9

A person from native groups in western Canada or central Alaska who speak similar languages

is the identical meaning but written in a different form
Athabascan
vsAthabaskan
9.9

A person from native groups in Alaska or western Canada who speaks a native language

is the same term but uses a different spelling
Athapascan
vsAthabaskan
9.9

A person from Indigenous groups in Alaska or western Canada who speaks related native languages

is identical in meaning but is an alternate written form

Surface Forms

Athabaskan singular
Athabaskans plural

Morphology

Athabaskan = Athabasca (opaque) = Athabasca + an

Formed from the place-name 'Athabasca' with the demonymal suffix '-an'; the ethnographic meaning 'a member of the Athabaskan peoples' depends on cultural/linguistic classification, not predictable from the components alone.

Etymology

Athabaskan comes from the place name Athabasca, a native word meaning 'where there are reeds'. So an Athabaskan person is someone from the groups who speak those related languages and who once lived around that river and lake.