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athapaskan

 - 3 dictionary results

Ath⋅a⋅pas⋅kan

  [ath-uh-pas-kuhn]
Use athapaskan in a Sentence
–noun, adjective
Athabaskan.
Also, Ath⋅a⋅pas⋅can.

Ath⋅a⋅bas⋅kan

  [ath-uh-bas-kuhn]
–noun
1. a family of languages spoken by American Indians in most of inland northwest Canada and Alaska, in coastal Oregon and California, and in Arizona and the Rio Grande basin, and including esp. Navajo, Apache, and Chipewyan. Compare family (def. 14).
2. a member of any of various American Indian peoples speaking Athabaskan.
–adjective
3. belonging to or characteristic of the Athabaskans.
Also, Ath⋅a⋅bas⋅can, Athapaskan, Athapascan.

Origin:
1770–80; earlier Athapasca(s), introduced as a term for the Canadian Athabaskans (< Woods Cree ahδapaska⋅w Lake Athabaska, lit., there are reeds here and there < Proto-Algonquian *aʔlap(y)- net, reticulated + *-ašk- plant + derivational elements) + -an
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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athapaskan

noun
1. 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 
2. a group of Amerindian languages (the name coined by an American anthropologist, Edward Sapir) 
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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