Slavey ( / ˈ s l eɪ v i / ; 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. 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.
19-689: Fort Liard / l i ˈ ɑːr d / ( Slavey language : Echaot'l Koe "people from the land of the giants" or Acho Dene Kue ) is a hamlet in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories , Canada. It is located 37 km (23 mi) north of the British Columbia border. It became accessible by road in 1984 with the completion of the Liard Highway (Northwest Territories Highway 7 and British Columbia Highway 77). The Hamlet of Fort Liard
38-511: A land area of 67.61 km (26.10 sq mi), it had a population density of 6.9/km (17.9/sq mi) in 2021. In the 2016 Census the majority of the population, 445 people out of a total of 500, were Indigenous , either First Nations or Métis . The Dene of the community are represented by the Acho Dene Koe Band and the Métis by Fort Liard Metis Local 67 . Both groups belong to
57-535: A separate phoneme. Prenasalized stops /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: 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 /p/ . Bearlake has labialized velars, but has lenited
76-428: A tap and a flap at the same place of articulation. The sound is often analyzed and thus interpreted by non-native English-speakers as an 'R-sound' in many foreign languages. In languages for which the segment is present but not phonemic, it is often an allophone of either an alveolar stop ( [ t ] , [ d ] , or both) or a rhotic consonant (like the alveolar trill or the alveolar approximant ). If
95-478: A very specific morpheme order in the verb in which the stem must come last. The morpheme order is shown in the following chart. A Slavey verb must minimally have positions 13 and 14 to be proper. Here are some examples: 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. [go-]
114-405: Is a fuel centre that sells gasoline, diesel fuel, propane, emergency survival kits and convenience items. There is also a traditional craft store which sells locally made craft items. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Fort Liard had a population of 468 living in 170 of its 209 total private dwellings, a change of -6.4% from its 2016 population of 500 . With
133-510: Is marked with an acute accent, and low tone is unmarked. Tones are both lexical and grammatical. Lexical: /ɡáh/ 'along' vs. /ɡàh/ 'rabbit' 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. Slavey alphabet (1973) Tone is indicated with an acute accent and the ogonek indicates nasalization. North Slavey alphabet South Slavey alphabet Slavey, like many Athabascan languages, has
152-408: Is served by two general merchandise stores: The General Store and The North West Company store. The K-12 community school, "Echo Dene School", has a student population of about 150. It also has a community health centre with four nurses, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment with four members, and a recreation centre, including a swimming pool, skating rink, youth centre and multi-court. There
171-492: 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. kú̜e̒ house go detl’e̒h 3SG .paints.area kú̜e̒ go detl’e̒h house 3SG.paints.area 'S/he is painting the house.' ko̜̒e̒ house go cha area.in shelter ko̜̒e̒ go cha {} house area.in shelter 'in
190-495: The Deh Cho First Nations Tribal Council . Fort Liard has a borderline humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfb ), just above a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dfc ), characterized by extreme variation of temperatures between seasons. Temperatures can be warm in the summer, and cold in the winter. Fort Liard has an average frost free period of around 120 days, one of
209-709: 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 : South Slavey ( ᑌᓀ ᒐ Dené Dháh , Dene Yatıé or Dene Zhatıé ) is spoken by the Slavey people, who were also known as Dehghaot'ine, Deh Cho, Etchareottine - "People Dwelling in the Shelter", in the region of Great Slave Lake , upper Mackenzie River ( Deh Cho - "Big River") and its drainage, in
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#1732851984120228-437: The 'retroflex' symbol being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap [ɾ] ) and "party" (retroflex [ ɽ ] ). For linguists who do not make the distinction, alveolars and dentals are typically called taps and other articulations flaps . No language contrasts
247-525: 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. Alternative names: Slavi, Slave, Dené, Mackenzian The division of Slavey dialects is based largely on the way each one pronounces
266-427: The alveolar flap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed with ⟨ r ⟩ although that symbol technically represents the trill. The voiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very brief voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative . [REDACTED] Features of the voiced alveolar tap or flap: Features of the alveolar nasal tap or flap: Symbols to
285-474: The distinction that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, and a flap strikes the point of contact tangentially: "Flaps are most typically made by retracting the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge and moving it forward so that it strikes the ridge in passing." That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap can be written in the IPA with tap ⟨ ɾ ⟩ and flap ⟨ ɽ ⟩,
304-623: The longest in the territory. The highest temperature ever recorded in Fort Liard was 35.2 °C (95.4 °F) on 13 July 2014 and 27 June 2021. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −46.7 °C (−52.1 °F) on 15 January 1974. Slavey language 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
323-416: The old Proto-Athapaskan sounds *dz *ts *ts’ *s and *z. 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 /w/ (on blue). In addition, for some speakers of Hare, an alveolar flap /ɾ/ has developed into
342-581: The shelter of the house' ko̜̒e̒ house go deshįte̒ee area.floor ko̜̒e̒ go deshįte̒ee house area.floor 'floor of the house' Alveolar flap The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages . The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental , alveolar , or postalveolar tap or flap is ⟨ ɾ ⟩. The terms tap and flap are often used interchangeably. Peter Ladefoged proposed
361-533: The voiced fricative to coincide with pre-existing /w/ . The most complicated situation is found in Hare, where the plain stop is a labialized velar, the ejective member is replaced by a /ʔw/ sequence, the aspirated affricate has turned into a fricative /f/ , and both the voiceless and voiced fricatives have been lenited to /w/ . The following phonological and phonetic statements apply to all four dialects of Slavey. Slavey has two tones: In Slavey orthography, high tone
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