Contact and semantic shift in extreme language endangerment: Ahtna riverine directionals in a cardinal world

• Main Author: Berez-Kroeker, Andrea L.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: John Benjamins Publishing Company 2016
• Subjects: Linguistics; ahtna; Athabascan; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/50692; https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.173

This paper examines the effects of contact with English on the directional system of Ahtna, an endangered Athabascan language of Alaska. The Ahtna directionals reference direction and location in the geographic landscape, but contact with the dominant English system is causing changes in lexicon and possibly the replacement of the entire semantic basis of directional reckoning in Ahtna. This paper examines the effects of contact with English on the directional system of Ahtna, an endangered Athabascan language of Alaska. The Ahtna directionals reference direction and location in the geographic landscape, but contact with the dominant English system is causing changes in lexicon and possibly the replacement of the entire semantic basis of directional reckoning in Ahtna.