Na-Dene (/ˌnɑːdᵻˈneɪ/; also Nadene, Na-Dené, Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit, Tlina–Dene) is a Native American language family that includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. An old inclusion of Haida is now considered invalid.
In February 2008 a proposal connecting Na-Dene (excluding Haida) to the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia into a Dené–Yeniseian family was published and well received by a number of linguists. It was proposed in a 2014 paper that the Na-Dene languages of North America and the Yeniseian languages of Siberia had a common origin in a language spoken in Beringia, between the two continents.
Edward Sapir originally constructed the term Na-Dene to refer to a combined family of Athabaskan, Tlingit, and Haida (the existence of Eyak was not known to him at the time). In his "The Na-Dene languages: A preliminary report", he describes how he arrived at the term (Sapir 1915, p. 558):
In its non-controversial core, Na-Dene consists of two branches, Tlingit and Athabaskan–Eyak:
The flame that burns insight, it gives me life it pulls me in.
Holding nothing back, I give it all then more, til' nothing's left.
To be or not to be, to create destiny, or fall infinitely
Inside of me, all my fears, they strive for life and drain my soul.
Hopes, and dreams, in sleep, til' my
Blood can flow into new veins.
Then my stagnant dreams reborn again, "begin the progression"
Seasons pass and faces age, the passing time, makes cold their fires.
Stand and fall and laugh and cry or leave this world without a trace.
To be or not to be, to create destiny, or fall infinitely
Inside of me, all my hopes, strive for life, they drain my soul.
Hopes, and dreams, awake, can my
Blood now flow into new veins.
From a dreams cruel lie I now awake, "time of change"
Frequencies in song help liberate.
Stagnant dreams forever trapped inside.
Stagnant progression, an elusive evolvement.
Progression hides in fields of change, elusive always taunting me.
Watch the fears they lie and hold you back
The price is time and always paid in death.
Stagnant progression, an elusive evolvement.