Dene Suline language

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Dene Suline (also Dëne Sųłiné, Dene Sųłiné, Chipewyan, Dene Suliné, Dëne Suliné, Dene Soun’liné) is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada (parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) and is also called Dene. Chipewyan is part of the Athabaskan family and is related to the Navajo language. This language is spoken by 4,000 out of 6,000 ethnic Chipewyans.

Dene Suline is one of the official languages of the Northwest Territories, the others being English, French, Cree, Dogrib, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, and Slavey.

Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 1.3 Tone 2 External links 3 Bibliography

Sounds

Template:IPA notice

Consonants

The 39 consonants of Dene Suline:

		Bilabial	Interdental	Dental		Post-alveolar	Velar		Glottal
				central	lateral		plain	labial
Stop	unaspirated	Template:IPA		Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	aspirated			Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	ejective			Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Affricate	unaspirated		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	aspirated		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	ejective		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Nasal		Template:IPA		Template:IPA
Trill				Template:IPA
Fricative	voiceless		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	voiced		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA

Vowels

Dene Suline has vowels of 6 differing qualities.

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPA		Template:IPA
Upper-Mid	Template:IPA		Template:IPA
Lower-Mid	Template:IPA
Low		Template:IPA

Most vowels can be either

• oral or nasal
• short or long

As a result, Dene Suline has 18 phonemic vowels:

		Front		Central		Back
		short	long	short	long	short	long
High	oral	Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	nasal	Template:IPA	Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Mid-upper		Template:IPA				Template:IPA
Mid-lower	oral	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	nasal	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Low	oral			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	nasal			Template:IPA	Template:IPA

Dene Suline also has 9 oral and nasal diphthongs of the form vowel + Template:IPA.

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
High					Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Mid	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Low			Template:IPA	Template:IPA

Tone

Dene Suline has two tones:

• high
• low

Template:Na-lang-stub

External links

• Our Languages: Dene (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
  • history & background
  • reservations
  • reservation maps
  • preservation/revitalization
  • alphabet
  • grammar
  • terms/phrases (includes sound files)

Bibliography

• Cook, Eung-Do. (2004). A grammar of Dëne Sųłiné (Chipewyan). Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics - Special Athabaskan Number, Memoir 17. Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics. ISBN 0-9210-6417-9.
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Li, Fang-Kuei. (1946). Chipewyan. In C. Osgood & H. Hoijer (Eds.), Linguistic structures of native America (pp. 398-423). New York: The Viking Fund.
• Osgood, Cornelius; & Hoijer, Harry (Eds.). (1946). Linguistic structures of native America. Viking fund publications in anthropology (No. 6). New York: The Viking Fund. (Reprinted 1963, 1965, 1967, & 1971, New York: Johnson Reprint Corp.).fr:Chipewyan (langue)