The Sekani language or Tse’khene is a

Northern Athabaskan language Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken by indigenous peoples in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska (Alaskan Athabaskans), Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. The Nor ...

spoken by the

Sekani Sekani or Tse’khene are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the Northern Interior of British Columbia. Their territory includes the Finlay and Parsnip River drainages of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The ne ...

people of north-central

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Phonology

Consonants

Sekani has 33 consonants:

Vowels

Tone

Sekani has two tones: low and high. High tone is the more common tone. Syllables phonologically marked for tone are low.

Nasalization

Nasalization of vowels is phonemic and so changes the meaning.

Sample words

FirstVoices: Kwadacha Tsek'ene Community Portal
/ref> In the practical writing system used here for the Kwadacha Tsek'ene dialect, ''u'' represents the

mid-central vowel The mid central vowel (also known as schwa) is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter e. While the ''Handbook of the I ...

, and ''oo'' represents the high back rounded vowel. An apostrophe represents a

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

, and an

ogonek The (; Polish: , "little tail", diminutive of ) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European languages, and directly under a vowel in several Native American languages. It ...

under a vowel represents nasalization. *dune man; person *tlįį dog *wudzįįh caribou *yus snow *chǫ rain *k’wus cloud *kwùn fire *’įįbèh summer *too water *mun lake *nun land *tselh axe *ʼukèʼ foot *’àtse my grandfather *’àtsǫǫ my grandmother *lhìghè’ one *lhèkwudut’e two *tadut’e three *dįįdut’e four *ǫ yes *Tlįį duchę̀’ ’ehdasde January *Dahyusè’ nùkehde wìlę February *Nùtsʼiide March *ʼUtʼǫ̀ʼ kùnuyehde May *Jìje dinììdulh July *Yhììh nunutsunde wìlę August *Yhììh ukudeh’àsde September *’Udììtl’ǫh ’uwit’į̀į̀h October *Yus ’ut’į̀į̀h November *Khuye ’uwììjàh December

Notes

Bibliography

* Hargus, Sharon. (1988). ''The Lexical Phonology of Sekani''. (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics). New York: Garland Publishers. * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .

Articles

* Hargus, Sharon (2009) Effects on consonant duration in Fort Ware Tsek'ene. Presented at Athabaskan/Dene Languages Conference, Eugene, OR
PDF of slidesPDF of references
* Hargus, Sharon (2009) "Causatives and transitionals in Kwadacha Tsek'ene."
slides
Presented at the Athabaskan Languages Conference, Berkeley, CA. upported by NSF DEL-0651853 and Kwadacha Education Society * Hargus, Sharon (2009) "Phonetic vs. phonological rounding in Athabaskan languages.
PDF of slidesPDF of references
Presented at LabPhon 12, Albuquerque, NM. (reposted July 16, 2010). The article will appear in Journal of Laboratory Phonology 3:163-193.

External links

First Voices Kwadacha Tsek'ene Community Portal

* ttp://www.ydli.org/biblios/sekbib.htm Bibliography of Sekani Linguistics
Map of Northwest Coast First Nations
(including Sekani)
OLAC resources in and about the Sekani language
{{Languages of Canada Northern Athabaskan languages Indigenous languages of the North American Subarctic First Nations languages in Canada Languages of the United States Northern Interior of British Columbia Endangered Athabaskan languages Sekani