Slavey language explained

Slavey
Nativename:	North: Sahtúgot’įné Yatı̨́ K’ashógot’įne Goxedǝ́ Shíhgot’įne Yatı̨́ South: Dené Dháh, Dene Yatıé or Dene Zhatıé
States:	Denendeh, Canada
Region:	Northwest Territories
Ethnicity:	Slavey, Sahtu
Speakers:	2,120, 65% of ethnic population
Date:	2016 census
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Dené-Yeniseian
Fam2:	Na-Dené
Fam3:	Athabaskan
Fam4:	Northern Athabaskan
Nation:	Northwest Territories, Canada^[2]
Iso2:	den
Iso3:	den
Lc1:	scs
Ld1:	North Slavey
Lc2:	xsl
Ld2:	South Slavey
Glotto:	slav1253
Glottorefname:	Slave
Notice:	IPA
Map:	Lang Status 60-DE.svg

Root:	Dene / (Slavey)^[3] "people" / "Awokanak"^[4]
Person:	Dene
People:	Got'iné (North)Sahtúgot’įné ("Great Bear Lake")K’ashógot’įne ("Hareskin")Shíhgot’įne ("Mountain") Deneke (South)
Language:	Got'iné Kedé / Got'iné YatíSahtúgot’įné Kədǝ́K’ashógot’įne Xədǝ́Shíhgot’įne Yatı̨́ Dene Yatié / Dene Zhatié
Country:	Denendeh,Got'iné Néné (North),Sahtúgot’įné Nę́nę́K’ashógot’įne Nę́néShıhgot’ıné Nę́nę́Dene Ndéh (South),DehchondéhDene Tha' Ndéh

Slavey (;^[5] also Slave, Slavé) is a group of Athabaskan languages and a dialect continuum spoken amongst the Dene peoples of Canada in the Northwest Territories – or central Denendeh – where it also has official status.^[6] The languages are primarily written using a modified Latin script, with some using Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. In their own languages, these languages are referred to as: Sahtúgot’įné Yatı̨́ (spoken by the Sahtu Dene), K’ashógot’įne Goxedǝ́ (the Hare Dene dialect) and Shíhgot’įne Yatı̨́ (the Mountain dialect) in the North, and Dené Dháh (primarily by the Dene Tha' in Alberta), Dene Yatıé or Dene Zhatıé in the South.

North Slavey and South Slavey

North Slavey 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. The dialect has around 800 speakers.Northern Slavey is an amalgamation of three separate dialects:

• K’ashógot’įne (ᑲᑊᗱᑯᑎᑊᓀ) Goxedǝ́: Hare, spoken by the i=no|Gahwié got’iné - "Rabbitskin People" or i=no|K’áshogot’ıne - "Great Hare People", referring to their dependence on the varying hare for food and clothing, also called French: i=no|Peaux de Lièvre or French: i=no|Locheaux
• Sahtúgot’įné (ᓴᑋᕲᒼᑯᑎᑊᓀ) Yatı̨́: Bear Lake, spoken by the i=no|Sahtu Dene or i=no|Sahtú got’iné - "Bear Lake People", also known as French: i=no|Gens du Lac d'Ours
• Shíhgot’įne (ᗰᑋᑯᑎᑊᓀ) Yatı̨́: Mountain, spoken by the i=no|Shıhgot’ıné, Shuhtaot'iné or i=no|Shotah Dene - "Mountain People" or Mountain Indians, also called i=no|Nahagot’iné, Nahaa or i=no|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 (ᑌᓀ ᒐ i=no|[[Dene Tha' First Nation|Dené Dháh]], Dene Yatıé or i=no|Dene Zhatıé) is spoken by the Slavey people, who were also known as i=no|Dehghaot'ine, Deh Cho, Etchareottine - "People Dwelling in the Shelter", in the region of Great Slave Lake, upper Mackenzie River (i=no|Deh Cho - "Big River") and its drainage, in the District of Mackenzie, northeast Alberta, and northwest British Columbia.

Some communities are bilingual, with the children learning Slavey at home and English when they enter school. Still other communities are monolingual in Slavey The dialect has around 1,000 speakers.^[1]

Alternative 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.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
			plain	sibilant	lateral
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	aspirated		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	ejective		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative	voiceless			pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	voiced			pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Approximant		pronounced as /ink/					pronounced as /ink/

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 lenited into fricatives, whereas Mountain lacks pronounced as //w// (on blue). In addition, for some speakers of Hare, an alveolar flap pronounced as //ɾ// has developed into a separate phoneme. Prenasalized stops pronounced as //ᵐb, ⁿd// may appear in Slavey proper.

The most pronounced difference is however the realization of a series of consonants that varies greatly in their place of articulation:^[7]

	Slavey proper	Mountain	Bearlake	Hare
Plain stop/affricate	pronounced as /t̪θ/	pronounced as /p/	pronounced as /kʷ/	pronounced as /kʷ/, pronounced as /p/
Aspirated	pronounced as /t̪θʰ/	pronounced as /pʰ/	pronounced as /kʷʰ/	pronounced as /f/
Ejective	pronounced as /t̪θʼ/	pronounced as /pʼ/	pronounced as /kʷʼ/	pronounced as /ʔw/
Voiceless fricative	pronounced as /θ/	pronounced as /f/	pronounced as /ʍ/	pronounced as /w/
Voiced fricative / semivowel	pronounced as /ð/	pronounced as /v/	pronounced as /w/	pronounced as /w/

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 pronounced as //p//. Bearlake has labialized velars, but has lenited the voiced fricative to coincide with pre-existing pronounced as //w//. The most complicated situation is found in Hare, where the plain stop is a labialized velar, the ejective member is replaced by a pronounced as //ʔw// sequence, the aspirated affricate has turned into a fricative pronounced as //f//, and both the voiceless and voiced fricatives have been lenited to pronounced as //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.
  • pronounced as //k// → pronounced as /[k]/ or pronounced as /[k̬]/
• Aspirated obstruents are strongly aspirated.
• Ejectives are strongly ejective.
• When occurring between vowels, ejectives are often voiced, e.g.
  • pronounced as //kʼ// → pronounced as /[ɡˀ]/ or pronounced as /[kʼ]/
• pronounced as //t͡sʰ// is usually strongly velarized, i.e. pronounced as /[tˣ]/.
• Velar obstruents are palatalized before front vowels, e.g.
  • pronounced as //kɛ// → pronounced as /[cɛ]/
  • pronounced as //xɛ// → pronounced as /[çɛ]/
  • pronounced as //ɣɛ// → pronounced as /[ʝɛ]/
• Velar fricatives may be labialized before round vowels.
  • The voiceless fricative is usually labialized, e.g.
    • pronounced as //xo// → pronounced as /[xʷo]/
  • The voiced fricative is optionally labialized and may additionally be defricated e.g.
    • pronounced as //ɣo// → pronounced as /[ɣo]/ or pronounced as /[ɣʷo]/ or pronounced as /[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.
  • pronounced as //ko// → pronounced as /[kʷo]/
  • pronounced as //kʷo// → pronounced as /[k̹ʷwo]/
• Lateral affricates are generally alveolar, but sometimes velar, i.e.
  • pronounced as //tɬ// → pronounced as /[tɬ]/ or pronounced as /[kɬ]/
  • pronounced as //tɬʰ// → pronounced as /[tɬʰ]/ or pronounced as /[kɬʰ]/
  • pronounced as //tɬʼ// → pronounced as /[tɬʼ]/ or pronounced as /[kɬʼ]/
• pronounced as //x// may be velar or glottal, i.e.
  • pronounced as //x// → pronounced as /[x]/ or pronounced as /[h]/

Vowels

Oral! !Front!Central!Back

Close	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Close-mid	pronounced as /link/ ⟨ə⟩		pronounced as /link/
Open-mid	pronounced as /link/
Open		pronounced as /link/

• a pronounced as /[a]/
• e pronounced as /[ɛ]/ or pronounced as /[æ]/ when followed by a back vowel
• ə pronounced as /[e]/ or pronounced as /[ie]/
• i pronounced as /[i]/ or pronounced as /[ɪ]/ in syllable onset
• o pronounced as /[o]/
• u pronounced as /[u]/
• nasal vowels are marked with an ogonek accent, e.g. pronounced as /[ã]/
• Vowel length is distributed as /VV/ in the dialects of Bearlake, Slavey and Mountain.
• South Slavey does not have the 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: pronounced as //ɡáh// 'along' vs. pronounced as //ɡàh// 'rabbit'

Syllable structure

Slavey morphemes have underlying syllable structures in the stems: CV, CVC, CVnC, V, and VC. The prefixes of the stem occur as Cv, CVC, VC, CV, and C.

Prefix structure	Example	English gloss
CV	de-	inceptive
CVC	teh-	"into water"
V	í-	seriative
VC	ah-	second-person singular subject
C	h-	classifier (voice element)

Writing system

Slavey alphabet (1973)^[8]

a	c	chʼ	d	ddh	dh	dl	dz	e	g
pronounced as //a//	pronounced as //tʃʰ//	pronounced as //tʃʼ//	pronounced as //t//	pronounced as //t̪θ//	pronounced as //ð//	pronounced as //tɬ//	pronounced as //ts//	pronounced as //e//	pronounced as //k//
gh	h	i	j	k	kʼ	l	ł	m	mb
pronounced as //ɣ//	pronounced as //h//	pronounced as //i//	pronounced as //tʃ//	pronounced as //kʰ//	pronounced as //kʼ//	pronounced as //l//	pronounced as //ɬ//	pronounced as //m//	pronounced as //ᵐb//
n	nd	o	r	s	sh	t	th	tł	tłʼ
pronounced as //n//	pronounced as //ⁿd//	pronounced as //o//	pronounced as //ɾ//	pronounced as //s//	pronounced as //ʃ//	pronounced as //tʰ//	pronounced as //θ//	pronounced as //tɬʰ//	pronounced as //tɬʼ//
ts	tsʼ	tth	tthʼ	tʼ	u	w	y	z	zh	ʔ
pronounced as //tsʰ//	pronounced as //tsʼ//	pronounced as //t̪θʰ//	pronounced as //t̪θʼ//	pronounced as //tʼ//	pronounced as //u//	pronounced as //w//	pronounced as //j//	pronounced as //z//	pronounced as //ʒ//	pronounced as //ʔ//

Tone is indicated with an acute accent and the ogonek indicates nasalization.

North Slavey alphabet

South Slavey alphabet

Morphology

Slavey, like many Athabascan languages, has a very specific morpheme order in the verb in which the stem must come last. The morpheme order is shown in the following chart.

Position	Description
Position 000	Adverb
Position 00	Object of incorporated postposition
Position 0	Incorporated postposition
Position 1	Adverbial
Position 2	Distributive (yá-)
Position 3	Customary (na-)
Position 4	Incorporated stem
Position 5	Number
Position 6	Direct Object
Position 7	Deictic
Position 8	Theme/derivation
Position 9	Aspect/derivation
Position 10	Conjugation
Position 11	Mode
Position 12	Subject
Position 13	Classifier
Position 14	Stem

^[9]

A Slavey verb must minimally have positions 13 and 14 to be proper. Here are some examples:

xayadedhtí
Morphemes	xa	ya	de	d	h	tí
Position	1	1	9	13	13	14
Translation	'S/he prayed'

godee
Morphemes	go	∅	deeh
Position	6	13	14
Translation	'S/he talks'

dagodee
Morphemes	da	go	∅	dee
Position	4	6	13	14
Translation	'S/he stutters'

Person, number and gender

Gender

Slavey marks gender by means of prefixation on the verb theme. There are three different genders, one of which is unmarked; the other two are marked by prefixes [go-] and [de-]. However, only certain verb themes allow gender prefixes.^[9]

[go-] is used for nouns which mark location in either time or space. Some examples of these areal nouns are house (ko̜̒e̒), land (de̒h), river (deh), and winder (xay). The gender pronoun can be a direct object, an oblique object or a possessor.

[de-] marks wood, leaves and branches. This gender is optional: some speakers use it and others do not.^[9]

Number

Slavey marks number in the subject prefixes in position 12. The dual is marked by the prefix łe̒h- (Sl)/łe- (Bl)/le- (Hr).

ni̒łe̒gehtthe

'They two got stuck in a narrow passage.'

The plural is marked with the prefix go-.

Dahgogehthe

'They dance.'

ʔeha̒goni̒dhe

'We go for meat.'

Person

Slavey has first, second, third, and fourth person. When in position 12, acting as a subject, first-person singular is /h-/, second-person singular is /ne-/, first-person dual/plural is /i̒d-/, and second person plural is marked by /ah-/. Third person is not marked in this position. When occurring as a direct or indirect object, the pronoun prefixes change and fourth person becomes relevant.

• First-person singular takes se-.
• Second-person singular takes ne-
• Third person is marked by be-/me-
• Fourth person is marked by ye-^[9]

Classification

Like most Athabaskan languages, Slavey has a multitude of classifications. There are five basic categories that describe the nature of an object. Some of these categories are broken up further.^[9]

Class	Description	Locative prefix	Active Prefix	Examples
1a	One dimensional slender, rigid and elongated objects	Ø-to	∅-tí͔,-tǫ, -tǫ́	gun, canoe, pencil
1b	One directions flexible objects, ropelike; plurals	∅-ɫa	∅-ɫee, -ɫa, -ɫee	thread, snowshoes, rope
2a	two dimensional flexible	h-chú	h-chuh, -chú, -chu	open blanket, open tent, paper
2b	Two dimensional rigid objects	N/A	N/A	no specific lexical item
3	Solid roundish objects; chunky objects	∅-ʔǫ	∅-ʔáh, -ʔǫ, -ʔá	ball, rock, stove, loaf of bread
4a	Small containerful	∅-kǫ	∅-káh, -kǫ, -kah	pot of coffee, puppies in a basket, cup of tea
4b	Large containerful	h-tǫ	h-tí͔h, -tǫ, tǫ́	full gas tank, bucket of water, bag of flour
5	Animate	∅-tí͔	∅-téh, -tí͔, -té, h-téh, -tį	Any living thing

Tense and aspect

Tense

Slavey has only one structural tense: future. Other tenses can be indicated periphrastically.^[9]

An immediate future can be formed by the de- inceptive (position 9) plus y-.

Aspect

Slavey has two semantic aspects: perfective and imperfective.

The perfective is represented in position 11:

The perfective can also be used with a past tense marker to indicate that at the point of reference, which is sometime in the past, the event was completed ^[9]

The imperfective indicates that the reference time precedes the end of the event time:

Word order

Slavey is a verb-final language. The basic word order is SOV.^[9]

Oblique objects precede the direct object.

Case

Slavey has no case markings. To differentiate between subject, direct object, and oblique objects, word order is used. The subject will be the first noun phrase, and the direct object will occur right before the verb. The oblique objects are controlled by postpositions.^[9]

Possessives

^[9]

Possessive pronoun prefixes are found in Slavey. These pronouns have the same forms as the direct and oblique object pronouns. The prefixes are listed below with examples.

se- first-person singular

bá 'mitts'

sebáré 'my mitts'

mbeh 'knife'

sembehé 'my knife'

ne- second-person singular

ts'ah 'hat'

net'saré 'your (SG) hat'

tl'uh 'rope'

netl'ulé 'your (SG) rope'

ʔe- unspecified possessor

ʔelįé 'someone's dog'

naxe-/raxe- first-person plural, second-person plural.

ts'éré 'blanket'

naxets'éré 'our blanket, your (PL) blanket'

ku-/ki-/go- third-person plural

Clauses

Conjunctions

There are both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions in Slavey.

Coordinating

kúlú, kólí, kúú, kóó, ékóó, góa "but"

Subordinating conjunctions

-hé "because, so"

^[9]

Relative clauses

There are three important parts to a relative clause. There is the head, which is the noun that is modified or delimited. The second part is the restricting sentence. The sentence modifies the head noun. The last part is the complementizer.^[9]

Status

North and South Slavey are recognized as official languages of the Northwest Territories; they may be used in court and in debates and proceedings of the Northwest Territories legislature. However, unlike English and French, the government only publishes laws and documents in North and South Slavey if the legislature requests it, and these documents are not authoritative.^[10]

In 2015, a Slavey woman named Andrea Heron challenged the territorial government over its refusal to permit the ʔ character, representing the Slavey glottal stop, in her daughter's name, Sakaeʔah, despite Slavey languages being official in the NWT. The territory argued that territorial and federal identity documents were unable to accommodate the character. Heron had registered the name with a hyphen instead of the ʔ when her daughter was born, but when Sakaeʔah was 6, Ms. Heron joined a challenge by a Chipewyan woman named Shene Catholique-Valpy regarding the same character in her own daughter's name, Sahaiʔa.^[11]

Also in 2015, the University of Victoria launched a language revitalization program in the NWT, pairing learners of indigenous languages including Slavey with fluent speakers. The program requires 100 hours of conversation with the mentor with no English allowed, as well as sessions with instructors in Fort Providence.^[12]

In popular culture

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.

See also

• Broken Slavey

Further reading

• Howard, Philip G. 1990. A Dictionary of the Verbs of South Slavey. Yellowknife: Dept. of Culture and Communications, Govt. of the Northwest Territories,
• Isaiah, Stanley, et al. 1974. Golqah Gondie = Animal Stories - in Slavey. Yellowknife: Programme Development Division, Government of the Northwest Territories, .
• Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
• Monus, Vic, and Isaiah, Stanley. 1977. Slavey Topical Dictionary: A Topical List of Words and Phrases Reflecting the Dialect of the Slavey Language Spoken in the Fort Simpson Area. [Yellowknife: Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada?].
• Northwest Territories. 1993. South Slavey Legal Terminology. [Yellowknife, N.W.T.]: Dept. of Justice, Govt. of the Northwest Territories.
• Northwest Territories. 1981. Alphabet Posters in the Wrigley Dialect of the Slavey Language. [Yellowknife?]: Dept. of Education, Programs and Evaluation Branch.
• Tatti, Fibbie, and Howard, Philip G.. 1978. A Slavey Language Pre-Primer in the Speech of Fort Franklin. [Yellowknife]: Linguistic Programmes Division, Dept. of Education, Northwest Territories.
• Anand, Pranav and Nevins, Andrew. Shifty Operators in Changing Contexts. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://web.archive.org/web/20050517022822/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/IndexicalityWorkshop/anandnevins04.pdf
• Rice, Keren. 1989. A Grammar of Slave. Mouton Grammar Library (No. 5). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. .
• Sabourin, Margaret. 1975. Readers: Slavey Language. Yellowknife: Dept. of Education, Programme Development Division.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Language Highlight Tables, 2016 Census - Aboriginal mother tongue, Aboriginal language spoken most often at home and Other Aboriginal language(s) spoken regularly at home for the population excluding institutional residents of Canada, provinces and territories, 2016 Census – 100% Data. Canada. Government of Canada, Statistics. www12.statcan.gc.ca. 2 August 2017. en. 2017-11-17.
2. http://www.nwtlanguagescommissioner.ca/pdf/Official_Languages_Map.pdf Official Languages of the Northwest Territories
3. News: Mandeville . Curtis . Goodbye Great Slave Lake? Movement to decolonize N.W.T. maps is growing . 7 November 2023 . CBC . [T]he name Slavey is a colonial term that was imposed on the Dehcho Dene[, Nakehk'o said;] "It is a very terrible and horrible name." . 21 June 2016.
4. Waldman, Carl (2006). Facts on File Library of American History - Encyclopedia of Native American tribes. Infobase Publishing. p. 275. . The name given to Dene by the Cree "who sometimes raided and enslaved their less aggressive northern neighbors".
5. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
6. http://www.justice.gov.nt.ca/PDF/ACTS/Official_Languages.pdf Northwest Territories Official Languages Act, 1988
7. Krauss, Michael E. & Golla, Victor K. (1981) Northern Athapaskan Languages. Handbook of North American Indians, p. 79.
8. Web site: Slavey alphabet . SIL International . en . 15 September 2022.
9. Book: Rice, Keren. A Grammar of Slave. 1989. Walter de Gruyter & Co. Berlin. 3110107791.
10. Nitah, S. (2002). One land - many voices: report of the NWT Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act. Canadian Parliamentary Review 25(3), 4-8.
11. News: Browne. Rachel. What's in a name? A Chipewyan's battle over her native tongue. 5 April 2015. Maclean's. 12 March 2015.
12. News: Erin Brohman. Garrett Hinchey. UVic program aims to revitalize South Slavey language in N.W.T.. 5 April 2015. CBC News. 16 March 2015.