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.

Slavey (also Slave, Slavé) (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. ^[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.

The language is written using Canadian Aboriginal syllabics or the Latin alphabet.

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 cultural consultant for the show.

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.

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.

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

Alternate names: Slavi, Slave, Dené, Mackenzian

Sounds

Consonants

Bearlake

The 35 consonants of Bearlake:

Hare

The 30 (or 31) consonants of Hare:

For some speakers of Hare, /ɾ/ has developed into a separate phoneme.

Mountain

The 33 consonants of Mountain:

Slavey (proper)

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

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

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008)

Notes

See also

• Broken Slavey

References

Further reading