Slavey ( ; also Slave, Slavé) is a group of

Athabaskan languages Athabaskan ( ; also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene languages, Na-Dene language family of North America, located in western North America in three areal language ...

and a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

spoken amongst the

Dene The Dene people () are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...

peoples of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

– or central Denendeh – where it also has official status.Northwest Territories Official Languages Act, 1988
(as amended 1988, 1991-1992, 2003) The languages are primarily written using a modified

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

, with some using

Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used in a number of indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian languages, Algonquian, Eskimo–Aleut languages, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan languages, A ...

. 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 Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

), 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 The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...

from

Tulita Tulita, which in Slavey means "where the rivers or waters meet", is a hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime betwee ...

(Fort Norman) north, around Great Bear Lake, and in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Canadian territory of

. The dialect has around 800 speakers. Northern Slavey is an amalgamation of three separate ''dialects'': * K’ashógot’įne () Goxedǝ́: Hare, spoken by the - "Rabbitskin People" or - "Great Hare People", referring to their dependence on the varying hare for food and clothing, also called or * Sahtúgot’įné () Yatı̨́: Bear Lake, spoken by the or - "Bear Lake People", also known as * Shíhgot’įne () Yatı̨́: Mountain, spoken by the or - "Mountain People" or ''Mountain Indians'', also called or - "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 ( or ) is spoken by the Slavey people, who were also known as - "People Dwelling in the Shelter", in the region of

Great Slave Lake Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada (after Great Bear Lake), List of lakes by depth, the deepest lake in North America at , and the List of lakes by area, tenth-largest lake in the world by area. It ...

, upper Mackenzie River ( - "Big River") and its drainage, in the District of Mackenzie, northeast

, and northwest

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. 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 the old Proto-Athapaskan sounds *dz *ts *ts’ *s and *z.

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. 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 The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene group of Indigenous Canadian people belonging to the Athabaskan language family, whose ancest ...

woman named Shene Catholique-Valpy regarding the same character in her own daughter's name, Sahaiʔa. Also in 2015, the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

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.

Phonology

Consonants

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 (on blue). In addition, for some speakers of Hare, an

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 The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based pri ...

has developed into a separate phoneme. Prenasalized stops may appear in Slavey proper. The most pronounced difference is however the realization of a series of consonants that vary 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 . Bearlake has labialized velars, but has lenited the voiced fricative to coincide with pre-existing . The most complicated situation is found in Hare, where the plain stop is a labialized velar, the ejective member is replaced by a sequence, the aspirated affricate has turned into a fricative , and both the voiceless and voiced fricatives have been lenited to .

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. ** → or * Aspirated obstruents are strongly aspirated. * Ejectives are strongly ejective. * When occurring between vowels, ejectives are often voiced, e.g. ** → or * is usually strongly velarized, i.e. . * Velar obstruents are palatalized before front vowels, e.g. ** → ** → ** → * Velar fricatives may be labialized before round vowels. ** The voiceless fricative is usually labialized, e.g. *** → ** The voiced fricative is optionally labialized and may additionally be deaffricated e.g. *** → or or * 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. ** → ** → * Lateral affricates are generally alveolar, but sometimes velar, i.e. ** → or ** → or ** → or * may be velar or glottal, i.e. ** → or

Vowels

* a * e or when followed by a back vowel * ə or * i or in syllable onset * o * u * nasal vowels are marked with an ogonek accent, e.g. *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: 'along' vs. '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.

Writing system

Slavey alphabet (1973) Tone is indicated with an acute accent and the

ogonek The tail or ( ; 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 langu ...

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

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 o-'' and e-''. However, only certain verb themes allow gender prefixes. o-'' is used for nouns which mark location in either time or space. Some examples of these areal nouns are house (kǫ́é), land (déh), river (deh), and winter (xay). The gender pronoun can be a direct object, an oblique object or a possessor. e-'' marks wood, leaves and branches. This gender is optional: some speakers use it and others do not.

Number

Slavey marks number in the subject prefixes in position 12. The dual is marked by the prefix łéh- (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-

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.

Tense and aspect

Tense

Slavey has only one structural tense: future. Other tenses can be indicated periphrastically. 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 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. 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.

Possessives

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'

''be-/me-'' third-person singular

''ye-'' fourth person

''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

=''gots'éh'' "and, and then"

=''kúlú, kólí, kúú, kóó, ékóó, góa'' "but"

Subordinating conjunctions

=''ʔenįdé, nįdé, ndé, néh'' "if, when, whenever"

=''-were'' "before"

=''-ts'ę'' "since, from"

=-''hé'' "because, so"

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.

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.