Athabaskan

 
Pronunciation: /ˌaθəˈbask(ə)n/
(also Athapaskan)

adjective

  • denoting or relating to a family of North American Indian languages, including a southern group of which the most important are Navajo and Apache, and a northern group in Alaska and the Canadian North-West, many of which are now rare or extinct.

noun

  • 1 [mass noun] the Athabaskan family of languages, sometimes classified in the Na-Dene phylum.
  • 2a speaker of any of the Athabaskan languages.

Origin:

from Athabasca, the name of a lake in western Canada, from Cree Athap-askaw 'grass and reeds here and there', + -an