Slavey language

Slavey
Native to	Canada
Region	Northwest Territories
Ethnicity	Slavey people
Native speakers	760  (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Slavey
Official status
Official language in	North and South Slavey both official in  Northwest Territories (Canada)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-2	den
ISO 639-3	den – inclusive code Individual codes: scs – North Slavey xsl – South Slavey

Colville Lake

Délįne

Fort Good Hope

Norman Wells

Tulita

Sahtu (North Slavey) communities in the Northwest Territories

Slavey (/ˈsleɪvi/;^[3] also Slave, Slavé) is an Athabaskan language spoken among the Slavey First Nations of Canada in the Northwest Territories where it also has official status.^[4] The language is written using Canadian Aboriginal syllabics or the Latin script.

Slavey was the native language spoken by the fictional band in the Canadian television series North of 60. Nick Sibbeston, a former Premier of the Northwest Territories, was a Slavey language and culture consultant for the show.

North Slavey language and South Slavey language

North Slavey language (or Sahtúot’ı̨nę Yatı̨́), is spoken by the Sahtu (North Slavey) people in the Mackenzie District along the middle Mackenzie River from Tulita (Fort Norman) north, around Great Bear Lake, and in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Canadian territory of Northwest Territories.

Statistics: Speakers: 1,235 (2006 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Dené, Mackenzian, Slave

Northern Slavey is an amalgamation of three separate dialects:

• ᑲᑊᗱᑯᑎᑊᓀ K’áshogot’ıne (Hare, spoken by the Gahwié gotinè - “Rabbitskin People” or K’áshogot’ıne - “Great Hare People”, referring to their dependence on the varying hare for food and clothing, also called Peaux de Lievre or Locheaux)
• ᓴᑋᕲᒼᑯᑎᑊᓀ Sahtúgot’ıne (Bear Lake, spoken by the Sahtu Dene or Sahtú gotine - “Bear Lake People”, also known as Gens du Lac d'Ours)
• ᗰᑋᑯᑎᑊᓀ Shıhgot’ıne (Mountain, spoken by the Shıhgot’ıne, Shuhtaot'ine or Shotah Dene - “Mountain People” or Mountain Indians, also called Nahagot’ine, Nahaa or Nahane Dene - “People of the west”, so called because they lived in the mountains west of the other Slavey groups, between the Mackenzie Mountains and the Mackenzie River, from the Redstone River to the Mountain River)

South Slavey language (ᑌᓀ ᒐ Dene-thah, Dené Dháh or Dene Zhatıé), is spoken by the Slavey (South Slavey) people, which were also known as Dehghaot'ine, Deh Cho, Etchareottine - “People Dwelling in the Shelter”, in the region of Great Slave Lake, upper Mackenzie River (Deh Cho - “Big River”) and drainage in Mackenzie District, northeast Alberta, northwest British Columbia.

Statistics: Speakers: 2,310 (2006 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Slave, Dené, Mackenzian

The division of Slavey dialects is based largely on the way each one pronounces the old Proto-Athapaskan sounds *dz *ts *ts’ *s and *z.

Sounds

Consonants

The consonant inventories in the dialects of Slavey differ considerably. The table above lists the 30 consonants common to most or all varieties. Hare lacks aspirated affricates (on red background), which have merged into fricatives, whereas Mountain lacks /w/ (on blue). In addition, for some speakers of Hare, an alveolar flap /ɾ/ has developed into a separate phoneme.

The most pronounced difference is however the realization of a series of consonants that varies greatly in their place of articulation:

In Slavey proper, these are dental affricates and fricatives; comparative Athabaskan work reveals this to be the oldest sound value. Mountain has labials, with the voiceless stop coinciding with pre-existing /p/. Bearlake has labialized velars, but has lenited the voiced fricative to coincide with pre-existing /w/. The most complicated situation is found in Hare, where the plain stop is (as in Bearlake) a labialized velar, the ejective member is replaced by a /ʔw/ sequence, the voiceless fricative is (as in Mountain) /f/, into which the aspirated affricate has collapsed, and the voiced fricative has (again as in Bearlake) been lenited to /w/.

Phonological processes

The following phonological and phonetic statements apply to all four dialects of Slavey.

• Unaspirated obstruents are either voiceless or weakly voiced, e.g.
  • /k/ → [k] or [k̬]
• Aspirated obstruents are strongly aspirated.
• Ejectives are strongly ejective.
• When occurring between vowels, ejectives are often voiced, e.g.
  • /kʼ/ → [ɡˀ] or [kʼ]
• /t͡sʰ/ is usually strongly velarized, i.e. [tˣ].
• Velar obstruents are palatalized before front vowels, e.g.
  • /kɛ/ → [cɛ]
  • /xɛ/ → [çɛ]
  • /ɣɛ/ → [ʝɛ]
• Velar fricatives may be labialized before round vowels.
  • The voiceless fricative is usually labialized, e.g.
    • /xo/ → [xʷo]
  • The voiced fricative is optionally labialized and may additionally be defricated e.g.
    • /ɣo/ → [ɣo] or [ɣʷo] or [wo]
• Velar stops are also labialized before round vowels. These labialized velars are not as heavily rounded as labial velars (which occur in Bearlake and Hare), e.g.
  • /ko/ → [kʷo]
  • /kʷo/ → [k̹ʷwo]
• Lateral affricates are generally alveolar, but sometimes velar, i.e.
  • /tɬ/ → [tɬ] or [kɬ]
  • /tɬʰ/ → [tɬʰ] or [kɬʰ]
  • /tɬʼ/ → [tɬʼ] or [kɬʼ]
• /x/ may be velar or glottal, i.e.
  • /x/ → [x] or [h]

Vowels

• a [a]
• e [ɛ]
• ə [e] or [ie]
• i [i]
• o [o]
• u [u]
• nasal vowels are marked with an ogonek accent, e.g., ⟨ą⟩ [ã]
• South Slavey does not have the ⟨ə⟩ vowel.

Tone

Slavey has two tones:

• high
• low

In Slavey orthography, high tone is marked with an acute accent, and low tone is unmarked.

Tones are both lexical and grammatical.

Lexical: /ɡáh/ 'along' vs. /ɡàh/ 'rabbit'

See also

Slavey language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Broken Slavey

Further reading

Notes