Na-Dene

American  

[nah-dey-nee, nah-dey-ney] / nɑˈdeɪ ni, ˌnɑ deɪˈneɪ /

Or Nadene

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.

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adjective

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

Na-Dene British  

/ nəˈdiːn, nɑːˈdeɪnɪ /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of Na-Dene

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

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

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

The second and third migrations have left an impact only in Arctic populations whose languages belong to the Eskimo-Aleut family and in the Canadian Chipewyan who speak a language that belongs to the Na-Dene family.

From BBC

They also find evidence for two further waves of migration, one among Na-Dene speakers and the other among Eskimo-Aleut, again as Dr. Greenberg predicted.

From New York Times