The Tlingit language ( /ˈklɪŋkɪt/; Tlingit: Lingít ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and its culture.
Russian Orthodox missionaries were the first to develop a written version of Tlingit, using the Cyrillic script to record and translate it, when the Russian Empire had contact with Alaska and the coast of North America down to Sonoma County, California. Later, American missionaries developed a written version of the language in the Latin alphabet.
Read more about Tlingit Language: History, Classification, Geographic Distribution, Dialects, Phonology, Writing System, Grammar
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“Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)