Dene_suline_language

Dene Suline (also Dëne Sųłiné, Dene Sųłiné, Chipewyan, Dene Suliné, Dëne Suliné, Dene Soun’liné or just Dene) is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada. It is a part of the Athabaskan family and therefore related to the Navajo language. Dene Suline has over 10,000 speakers in Canada, mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, but only has official status in the Northwest Territories alongside 8 other aboriginal languages: Cree, Dogrib, Gwichʼin, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey.Northwest Territories Official Languages Act, 1988 (as amended 1988, 1991-1992, 2003)

Sounds

Consonants

The 39 consonants of Dene Suline:

The "velar" fricatives are actually uvular.

Vowels

Dene Suline has vowels of 6 differing qualities.

Most vowels can be either

• oral or nasal
• short or long

As a result, Dene Suline has 18 phonemic vowels:

Dene Suline also has 9 oral and nasal diphthongs of the form vowel + /j/.

Tone

Dene Suline has two tones:

• high
• low

References

See also

• Chipewyan Syllabics

External links

• Chipewyan at Ethnologue
• 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 0-921064-17-9.
• Cook, Eung-Do. 2006. "The Patterns of Consonantal Acquisition and Change in Chipewyan (Dene Suline)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 72, no. 2: 236.
• De Reuse, Willem. 2006. "A Grammar of Dene Suline (Chipewyan) (Cook)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 72, no. 4: 535.
• Elford, Leon W. Dene sųłiné yati ditł\'ísé = Dene sųłiné reader. Prince Albert, SK: Northern Canada Mission Distributors, 2001. ISBN 1896968287
• Gessner, S. 2005. "Properties of Tone in Dene Suline". Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science. Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. 269: 229-248.
• 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.).

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