Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A group of related North American Indian languages including the Apachean languages and languages of Alaska, northwest Canada, and coastal Oregon and California.
- noun A member of an Athabaskan-speaking people.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Belonging to a certain great family of North American Indian languages and tribes, occupying a vast extent of country south from the Eskimo region, between Hudson's Bay and the Rocky Mountains, with outlying members also west of the mountains, as far south as Mexico, including the Apaches and Navajos.
- noun A member or the language of this family.
- noun Also spelled Athabascan, Athapaskan.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Alternative spelling of
Athabascan . - proper noun Alternative spelling of
Athabascan . - noun Alternative spelling of
Athabascan .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a group of Amerindian languages (the name coined by an American anthropologist, Edward Sapir)
- noun a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Athapaskan language and living in the subarctic regions of western Canada and central Alaska
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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I started out trying to make it all about basketball and March Madness, but 9 Down, containing the work "Athabaskan," straightened me out.
NYT > Home Page 2009
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For me, the most moving work was by Iñupiaq/Athabaskan artist Erica Lord.
Artifacts to Artworks Lee Rosenbaum 2012
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Our review of The Trap didn't mention it, but the jacket flap does claim that the author is "of Ahtna Athabaskan descent," which apparently he isn't, although his adoptive parents are Indian.
Archive 2008-02-01 Roger Sutton 2008
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Our review of The Trap didn't mention it, but the jacket flap does claim that the author is "of Ahtna Athabaskan descent," which apparently he isn't, although his adoptive parents are Indian.
White man speaks Roger Sutton 2008
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Jan 24 2008 Whoops, Eyak isn't quite an Athabaskan language but rather a coordinate subbranch of the Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit family, according to the Alaska Native Language Center.
Archive 2008-01-01 2008
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Apparently the term "Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit" is used to avoid the controversial term "Na-Dene" which according to that hypothesis also links Haida to the family and this is controversial.
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South and east of the Miluk area and extending into the upper Coquille watershed lived people who spoke one of the Athabaskan languages, thereby distinguishing them from the Hanis and Miluk people.
South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Oregon 2008
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It's now one branch of Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit gone in the blink of an eye.
Archive 2008-01-01 2008
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Sarah James, a Gwich'in Athabaskan who lives in Arctic Village, suspects that even the most environmentally sensitive oil development will disrupt the caribous 'calving.
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The Na-Dene family includes languages spoken by the broad group of Athabaskan tribes in the U.S. and Canada as well as the Tlingit and Eyak people.
Archive 2008-03-01 Jan 2008
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