Gwich’in language

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Gwich'in Gwich'in
Spoken in:	Canada
Region:	Northwest Territories and into Alaska.
Total speakers:	770 (1998 Statistics Canada)
Language family:	Na-Dene  Athabaskan   Han-Kutchin    Gwich'in
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	gwi
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	—
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Gwich’in language is the Athabaskan language of the Gwich’in indigenous people. It is used principally in the towns of Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, and Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River) all in the Northwest Territories; as well as Old Crow, Yukon; Beaver, Circle, Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Birch Creek, Arctic Village, and Venetie, Alaska.

It is an official language of the Northwest Territories.

The glottal stop in the name Gwich’in is written with U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK.

Contents 1 Classification 1.1 Dialects 2 Phonology 2.1 Consonants 2.2 Vowels 3 External link

[edit] Classification

Gwich'in is a member of the Canadian sub-group of the Athabaskan languages, of the Na-Dene family of languages. It shares the Han-Kutchin subgroup with the Han language.

[edit] Dialects

There are several dialects of Gwich'in, including Fort Yukon Gwich'in, Arctic Village Gwich'in, Western Canada Gwich'in (Takudh, Tukudh, Loucheux), and Arctic Red River.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Consonants

The consonants of Gwich'in in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Interdental	Alveolar	Lateral	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Velar Rounded	Glottal
Stop	voiced	b  [b]			d  [d]			dr  [ɖ]	g  [g]	gw  [gʷ]
	voiceless				t  [t]			tr  [ʈ]	k  [k]	kw  [kʷ]	’  [ʔ]
	ejective				t’  [t']			tr’  [ʈ']	k’  [k']
Affricate	voiced		v  [v]	ddh  [dð]	dz  [dz]	dl  dɮ]	dj  [dʒ]
	voiceless			tth  [tθ]	ts  [ts]	tl  [tł]	ch  [tʃ]
	ejective			tth’  [tθ’]	ts’  [ts’]	tl’  [tł’]	ch’  [ch’]
Fricative	voiced			dh  [ð]	z  [z]		zh  [ʒ]	zhr  [ʐ]	gh  [ɣ]	ghw  [ɣʷ]
	voiceless			th  [θ]	s  [s]	ł  [ł]	sh  [ʃ]	shr  [ʂ]	kh  [x]		h  [h]
Nasal	voiced	m  [m]			n  [n]
	voiceless				nh  [ņ]
	voiced stop				nd  [dⁿ]
	voiced affricate					nj  [dʒⁿ]
Approximant	voiced	w  [w]				l  [l]	y  [j]	r  [r]
	voiceless							rh  [ṛ]

[edit] Vowels

• short
  • a [a]
  • e [e]
  • i [i]
  • o [o]
  • u [u]
• long
  • aa [aː]
  • ee [eː]
  • ii [iː]
  • oo [oː]
  • uu [uː]
• nasal vowels are marked by an ogonek accent, e.g., ą
• low tone is optionally marked with a grave accent, e.g., à
• high tone is never marked

[edit] External link

• Gwich’in language info