Slavey
Spoken in:	Canada
Region:	Northwest Territories
Total speakers:	Total: 3,545 North Slavey: 1,235 South Slavey: 2,310 [1]
Language family:	Dené-Yeniseian  Na-Dené   Athabaskan-Eyak    Athabaskan     Northern Athabaskan      Slavey
Official status
Official language in:	Northwest Territories
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	den
ISO 639-3:	variously: den – Slave (Athapascan) scs – North Slavey xsl – South Slavey
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The Northwest Territories (ˌnɔrθˌwɛstˈtɛrɨtɔriz ( NWT or NT; French, les Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a territory List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family Dené-Yeniseian is a proposed relationship between the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dené languages of northwestern North America Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes) is the name of a large group of closely Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska The Northwest Territories (ˌnɔrθˌwɛstˈtɛrɨtɔriz ( NWT or NT; French, les Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a territory This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Slavey (also Slave) (pronounced: [slevi]) is an Athabaskan language spoken among the Slavey First Nations of Canada in the Northwest Territories where it is also has official status. Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes) is the name of a large group of closely The Slavey (also Slave) are a First Nations aboriginal people of the Dene group indigenous to the Great Slave Lake region First Nations is a term of Ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis people Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The Northwest Territories (ˌnɔrθˌwɛstˈtɛrɨtɔriz ( NWT or NT; French, les Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a territory An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory ^[2]

In older literature, the name of the language was spelt Slave; however, the connotations of this, along with the pronunciation of the homograph slave (the final e should be pronounced) have caused the change to Slavey instead. A homograph is one of a group of words that share the same spelling but have different meanings

The language is written using Canadian Aboriginal syllabics or the Latin alphabet. Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing', or simply syllabics, is a family of Abugidas {dubious}} used to write a number of Aboriginal Canadian

Slavey was the native language spoken by the fictional band in the Canadian television series North of 60. North of 60 is a mid-1990s Canadian Television series depicting life in the sub- Arctic northern boreal forest (north of 60 degrees North Nick Sibbeston, a former Premier of the Northwest Territories, was a Slavey language and cultural consultant for the show. Nick G Sibbeston (born November 21, 1943 in Fort Simpson Northwest Territories) is a Canadian Senator. The Premier of the Northwest Territories is the first minister for the Northwest Territories, Canada.

Contents 1 North Slavey language and South Slavey language 2 Sounds 2.1 Consonants 2.1.1 Bearlake 2.1.2 Hare 2.1.3 Mountain 2.1.4 Slavey (proper) 2.1.5 Phonological processes 2.2 Vowels 2.3 Tone 3 Grammar 4 Notes 5 References 6 Further reading

North Slavey language and South Slavey language

North Slavey language is spoken by the Sahtu people in the Mackenzie District along the middle Mackenzie River from Fort Norman north, around Great Bear Lake, and in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Canadian territory of Northwest Territories. The Sahtú (or North Slavey) are an Aboriginal peoples of Canada Dene people living in the vicinity of Great Bear Lake ( Sahtú, the For the federal electoral district in Saskatchewan Canada see Mackenzie (electoral district The District of Mackenzie was a regional administrative The Mackenzie River (Fleuve Mackenzie originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. Great Bear Lake ( Slavey: Sahtú, French: Grand lac de l'Ours) is the largest Lake entirely within Canada ( The Mackenzie Mountains are a Mountain range forming part of the Yukon - Northwest Territories boundary between the Liard and Peel rivers The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country in total area. The Northwest Territories (ˌnɔrθˌwɛstˈtɛrɨtɔriz ( NWT or NT; French, les Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a territory

Statistics: Speakers: 1,065 (2006 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Dené, Mackenzian, Slave

Dialects: Hare, Bearlake, Mountain

South Slavey language or Dene-thah, is spoken in the region of Great Slave Lake, upper Mackenzie River and drainage in Mackenzie District, northeast Alberta, northwest British Columbia. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Statistics Canada (Statistique Canada is the Canadian federal government department commissioned with producing Statistics to help Great Slave Lake (French Grand lac des Esclaves) is the second-largest Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada (behind Great Bear The Mackenzie River (Fleuve Mackenzie originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. Principal settlements Fairlie Twizel Cave Mount Cook Village Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 British Columbia (ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə ( BC) ( (la Colombie-Britannique C

Statistics: Speakers: 1,605 (2006 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Slave, Dené, Mackenzian

Sounds

Consonants

Bearlake

The 35 consonants of Bearlake:

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Post-alveolar	Velar		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	labial
Stop	unaspirated	p	t			k	kʷ
	aspirated		tʰ			kʰ	kʷʰ
	ejective		tʼ			kʼ	kʼʷ	ʔ
Affricate	unaspirated		ʦ	tɬ	ʧ
	aspirated		ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ
	ejective		ʦʼ	tɬʼ	ʧʼ
Nasal		m	n
Fricative	voiceless		s	ɬ	ʃ	x	ʍ	h
	voiced		z	ɮ	ʒ	ɣ
Approximant					j		w

Hare

The 30 (or 31) consonants of Hare:

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar		Post-alveolar	Velar		Glottal
				central	lateral		plain	labial
Stop	unaspirated	p		t			k	kʷ
	aspirated			tʰ			kʰ
	ejective			tʼ			kʼ		ʔ
Affricate	unaspirated			ʦ	tɬ	ʧ
	ejective			ʦʼ	tɬʼ	ʧʼ
Nasal		m		n
Flap				(ɾ)
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ɬ	ʃ	x		h
	voiced			z	ɮ	ʒ	ɣ
Approximant	plain					j		w
	preglottalized							ʔw

For some speakers of Hare, /ɾ/ has developed into a separate phoneme. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Statistics Canada (Statistique Canada is the Canadian federal government department commissioned with producing Statistics to help

Mountain

The 33 consonants of Mountain:

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar		Post-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
				central	lateral
Stop	unaspirated	p		t			k
	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ			kʰ
	ejective	pʼ		tʼ			kʼ	ʔ
Affricate	unaspirated			ʦ	tɬ	ʧ
	aspirated			ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ
	ejective			ʦʼ	tɬʼ	ʧʼ
Nasal		m		n
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ɬ	ʃ	x	h
	voiced		v	z	ɮ	ʒ	ɣ
Approximant						j

Slavey (proper)

The 34 (or 35) consonants of Slavey (proper):

		Bilabial	Labio-velar	Interdental	Alveolar		Post-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
					central	lateral
Stop	unaspirated	(p)			t			k
	aspirated				tʰ			kʰ
	ejective				tʼ			kʼ	ʔ
Affricate	unaspirated			t̪ᶿ	ʦ	tɬ	ʧ
	aspirated			t̪ᶿʰ	ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ
	ejective			t̪ᶿʼ	ʦʼ	tɬʼ	ʧʼ
Nasal		m			n
Fricative	voiceless			θ	s	ɬ	ʃ	x	h
	voiced			ð	z	ɮ	ʒ	ɣ
Approximant			w				j

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]
• /ʦʰ/ is usually strongly velarized, i. e. [tˣ].
• Velars 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 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 [e]
• ə [ə]
• i [i]
• o [o]
• u [u]
• nasal vowels are marked with an ogonek accent, e. g. , ą [ą]

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'

Grammar

Notes

References

Further reading

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