User Guide

How to read and navigate this dictionary — notation conventions, organization of entries, and social considerations for Tanacross language use.

Navigation

The headwords, or main entries, in the dictionary are in English, listed alphabetically. Use the A–Z navigation bar at the top of the dictionary page to jump to entries beginning with a given letter. The search box allows you to search by English word, Tanacross word, or definition text.

Notation

English headwords are given in bold face type.

Tanacross subentries are given in rust-colored type, followed by an English definition in italics. Where the headword already serves as a definition, the English definition is omitted.

Tanacross examples are given in green type, followed by an English translation in green italics.

Audio recordings — where available — are indicated by a small speaker button (▶) immediately following the Tanacross form. Click to play.

Comments appear in smaller italic text with a gold left border. They are designed to help users with correct word use, and provide information about differences between English and Tanacross usage.

Cross-references are labeled with small-caps tags such as syn (synonym), see, and also.

Verb paradigms are given in a table with six cells (2 columns, 3 rows) displaying verb forms for the six major person categories:

Paradigms are labeled as imperfective or perfective, according to whether they refer to the ongoing or completed form of the verb, respectively. See the grammar section for more information.

Organization of Entries

Usually only one form of the English headword is listed. For example, run is a headword but not running or ran. The English used for headwords is somewhat informal, reflecting everyday speech, and some idioms and phrases are headwords — for example, used to, day after tomorrow, and right away.

English words that have very different meanings but are spelled the same (homonyms) have been split into separate headwords with a clarifying qualifier in parentheses — for example, like (enjoy) and like (similar). English words that can be used as both nouns and verbs are combined under one headword.

Place names commonly used in the Tanacross area are headwords, even if they differ from official versions. Headwords for birds and animals use the commonly used forms, so both crow and raven are headwords for the same species.

Tanacross does not distinguish gender in pronouns. Thus in many cases a Tanacross word can be translated with he, she, it or his, her, its. Dictionary translations of such words include all applicable English pronouns.

Individual entries often have multiple parts. More than one Tanacross word may be used for a single English concept, or one English entry may have multiple meanings. Many entries include one or more example sentences showing the Tanacross word in a larger context.

Tone

Tone is an integral part of the Tanacross language and is written as it occurs in words and sentences in the dictionary. Users should note that many Tanacross verbs will have a different sequence of tones depending on what word precedes the verb in a sentence. If in doubt, consult the accompanying recordings.

Social Considerations

It is important to remember that there is more to speaking a language than knowing words or grammar. There are also social considerations — after all, the major use of language is to communicate with other people, and a language cannot be separated from the people who speak it.

A very important concept when learning Tanacross is the cultural idea of injih. This word is usually translated as 'taboo', but injih means more than that English word usually implies. It is associated with a whole range of attitudes and social conventions about what is appropriate to do or say because of the consequences that may result. Injih is more than impolite or bad manners; it is serious.

There are many subjects that have some aspects of injih associated with them. It is injih to tell certain stories except at certain times of the year or by certain people. In general it is injih to talk boastfully about yourself.

Tanacross Elders working on the dictionary have requested that some words associated with injih subjects be noted as such within the entry. Note that this does not mean such words should never be used — rather, their appropriate use must be learned from Tanacross culture and cannot be learned from the dictionary alone.