Chipewyan language should not be confused with Chippewa language.
| Chipewyan | |
| Also Known As: | Dënesųłinë́ |
| Nativename: | Chipewyan; Dene Suline: ᑌᓀ ᓱᒼᕄᓀ ᔭᕠᐁ |
| States: | Canada |
| Region: | Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba; southern Northwest Territories and Nunavut |
| Ethnicity: | 30,910 Chipewyan people (2016 census)[1] |
| Speakers: | 11,325, 41% of ethnic population |
| Date: | 2016 census |
| Ref: | [2] |
| Familycolor: | Dené-Yeniseian |
| Fam2: | Na-Dené |
| Fam3: | Athabaskan |
| Fam4: | Northern Athabaskan |
| Nation: | Canada (Northwest Territories)[3] |
| Dia1: | Dënesųłinë́ yatié |
| Dia2: | Dënedédliné yatié |
| Dia3: | Tthetsánót’iné yatié |
| Dia4: | Tetsǫ́t’iné yatié |
| Iso2: | chp |
| Iso3: | chp |
| Glotto: | chip1261 |
| Glottorefname: | Chipewyan |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Chipewyan map.svg |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[tènɛ̀sũ̀ɬìné jàtʰìɛ́]/ |
| People: | Dënesųłinë́ |
| Language: | Dënesųłinë́ yatıé |
| Country: | Dënesųłinë́ nëné, Denendeh ᑌᓀᐣᑌᐧ |
Chipewyan [4] or Dënesųłinë́ (ethnonym: [5] [6] pronounced as /tènɛ̀sũ̀ɬìné jàtʰìɛ́/), often simply called Dëne, is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of northwestern Canada. It is categorized as part of the Northern Athabaskan language family. It has nearly 12,000 speakers in Canada, mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories.[7] It has official status only in the Northwest Territories, alongside 8 other aboriginal languages: Cree, Tlicho, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey.[3] [8]
Most Chipewyan people now use Dëne and Dënesųłinë́ to refer to themselves as a people and to their language, respectively. The Saskatchewan communities of Fond-du-Lac,[9] Black Lake,[10] Wollaston Lake[11] and La Loche are among these.
The 39 consonants of Dënesųłinë́:
| Bilabial | Inter- dental | Dental | Post- alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | labial | |||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ (m) | pronounced as /ink/ (n) | |||||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | plain | pronounced as /ink/ (b) | pronounced as /ink/ (ddh) | pronounced as /ink/ (d) | pronounced as /ink/ (dz) | pronounced as /ink/ (dl) | pronounced as /ink/ (j) | pronounced as /ink/ (g) | pronounced as /kʷ/ (gw) | pronounced as /ink/ (’) | |
| aspirated | pronounced as /tθʰ/ (tth) | pronounced as /tʰ/ (t) | pronounced as /tsʰ/ (ts) | pronounced as /tɬʰ/ (tł) | pronounced as /tʃʰ/ (ch) | pronounced as /kʰ/ (k) | pronounced as /kʷʰ/ (kw) | ||||
| ejective | pronounced as /ink/ (tthʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (tʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (tsʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (tłʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (chʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (kʼ) | pronounced as /kʷʼ/ (kwʼ) | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ (th) | pronounced as /ink/ (s) | pronounced as /ink/ (ł) | pronounced as /ink/ (sh) | pronounced as /ink/ (hh) | pronounced as /χʷ/ (hhw) | pronounced as /ink/ (h) | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ (dh) | pronounced as /ink/ (z) | pronounced as /ink/ (l) | pronounced as /ink/ (zh) | pronounced as /ink/ (gh) | pronounced as /ʁʷ/ (ghw) | |||||
| Tap | pronounced as /ink/ (r) | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ (l) | pronounced as /ink/ (y) | pronounced as /ink/ (w) | ||||||||
Dënesųłinë́ has vowels of 6 differing qualities.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
Most vowels can be either
As a result, Dënesųłinë́ has 24 phonemic vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | oral | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /uː/ | ||
| nasal | pronounced as /ĩ/ | pronounced as /ĩː/ | pronounced as /ũ/ | pronounced as /ũː/ | |||
| Close-mid | oral | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /oː/ | ||
| nasal | pronounced as /ẽ/ | pronounced as /ẽː/ | pronounced as /õ/ | pronounced as /õː/ | |||
| Open-mid | oral | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɛː/ | ||||
| nasal | pronounced as /ɛ̃/ | pronounced as /ɛ̃ː/ | |||||
| Open | oral | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /aː/ | ||||
| nasal | pronounced as /ã/ | pronounced as /ãː/ | |||||
Dënesųłinë́ also has 9 oral and nasal diphthongs of the form vowel + pronounced as //j//.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal | oral | nasal | oral | nasal | ||
| Close | pronounced as /uj/ | pronounced as /ũj/ | |||||
| Mid | pronounced as /ej/ | pronounced as /ẽj/ | pronounced as /əj/ | pronounced as /oj/ | pronounced as /õj/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /aj/ | pronounced as /ãj/ | |||||
Dënesųłinë́ has two tones:
In the 2011 Canada Census 11,860 people chose Dënesųłinë́ as their mother tongue. 70.6% were located in Saskatchewan and 15.2% were located in Alberta.[13]
Not all were from the historical Chipewyan regions south and east of Great Slave Lake. Approximately 11,000 of those who chose Dënesųłinë́ as their mother tongue in 2011 are Dëne/Chipewyan with 7,955 (72%) in Saskatchewan, 1,005 (9%) in Manitoba, 510 plus urban dwellers in Alberta and 260 plus urban dwellers in the Northwest Territories. The communities within the Dëne traditional areas are shown below:
The Dënesųłinë́-speaking communities of Saskatchewan are located in the northern half of the province. The area from the upper Churchill River west of Pinehouse Lake all the way north to Lake Athabasca and from Lake Athabasca east to the north end of Reindeer Lake is home to 7410 people who chose Dënesųłinë́ as their mother tongue in 2011.[14]
Prince Albert had 265 residents who chose Dënesųłinë́ as their mother tongue in 2011, Saskatoon had 165, the La Ronge Population Centre had 55 and Meadow Lake had 30.[14]
3,050 were in the Lake Athabasca-Fond du Lac River area including Black Lake and Wollaston Lake in the communities of:
3,920 were in the upper Churchill River area including Peter Pond Lake, Churchill Lake, Lac La Loche, Descharme Lake, Garson Lake and Turnor Lake in the communities of:
Two isolated communities are in northern Manitoba. The two Manitoban communities use Dënesųłinë́ syllabics to write their language.
The Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake Economic Region in the north eastern portion of Alberta from Fort Chipewyan to the Cold Lake area has the following communities. 510 residents of this region chose Dënesųłinë́ as their mother tongue in 2011.[14]
Three communities are located south of Great Slave Lake in Region 5. 260 residents of Region 5 chose Dënesųłinë́ as their mother tongue in 2011.[14]