Lower Tanana Language

Lower Tanana Language

Lower Tanana (also Tanana and/or Middle Tanana) is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken in Interior Alaska in the lower Tanana River villages of Minto and Nenana. Of about 380 Tanana people in the two villages, about 30 still speak the language. As of 2010, "Speakers who grew up with Lower Tanana as their first language can be found only in the 250-person village of Minto." The Athabascan bands that formerly extended between the Salcha and the Goodpaster Rivers spoke a distinct dialect that can be termed the Middle Tanana language.