| Babine–Witsuwit'en | |
|---|---|
| Witsuwit'en | |
| Spoken in | Canada |
| Region | British Columbia |
| Ethnicity | Carrier people |
| Native speakers | 500 (1997 S. Hargus) (date missing) |
| Language family |
Dené–Yeniseian
|
| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bcr |
Babine–Witsuwit'en or Nadot’en-Wets’uwet’en is an Athabaskan language spoken in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Its closest relative is Carrier. Because of this linguistic relationship together with political and cultural ties, Babine–Witsuwit'en is often referred to as Northern Carrier or Western Carrier. Specialist opinion is, however, that it should be considered a separate, though related, language (Kari 1975, Story 1984, Kari and Hargus 1989).
As its name suggests, Babine–Witsuwit'en consists of two main dialects, Babine (Nedut’en) and Witsuwit'en. Babine is spoken around Babine Lake, Trembleur Lake, and Takla Lake. Witsuwit'en is spoken in the Bulkley Valley, around Broman Lake, and in the vicinity of Skins Lake. The two dialects are very similar and are distinguished primarily by the fact that in Babine but not in Witsuwit'en the Athbascan front velar series have become palatal affricates.
Like most other native languages of British Columbia, Babine–Witsuwit'en is an endangered language. It is spoken by a minority of the population, primarily elders. There are 161 fluent and 159 partial speakers of the Babine dialect[1] and 131 fluent and 61 partial speakers of the Witsuwit'en dialect.[2] At most a handful of children speak the language.[3]
The language is sometimes conflated with Carrier or treated as a dialect of Carrier and referred to as Northern Carrier or less commonly Western Carrier. A term used briefly in the 1990s is Bulkley Valley – Lakes District Language', abbreviated BVLD. The Ethnologue uses the bare name Babine for the language as a whole, not just for the Babine dialect. (See also the articles on the two dialects.)
Contents |
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | (labial-) Velar |
Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Lateral | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Stop | plain | p | t | c | kʷ | q | ʔ | |
| aspirated | (pʰ) | tʰ | cʰ | kʷʰ | qʰ | |||
| ejective | (pʼ) | tʼ | cʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | |||
| Affricate | plain | ts | tɬ | |||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | tɬʰ | ||||||
| ejective | tsʼ | tɬʼ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiced | z | ʁ | |||||
| voiced | s | ɬ | ç | xʷ | χ | h | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
The aspirated and ejective labials are rarer than other consonants.
| Witsuwit'en | Southern Carrier | English |
|---|---|---|
| lhok | lhook | fish |
| ne’ | 'ama | mother |
| lhk'iy | lhuk’i | one |
| nek | nankoh | two |
| tak'iy | tak’ih | three |
| Hadï So'endzin | Hello. How are you? | |
| Sne kal yëgh | Thank you |
Source: First Voices
