Slavey language

North Slavey and South Slavey

North Slavey (Sahtúot’ı̨nę Yatı̨́) 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 the Mackenzie Mountains of the Canadian territory of Northwest Territories.

Statistics: Speakers: 1,235 (2006 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Dené, Mackenzian, Slave

Northern Slavey is an amalgamation of three separate dialects:

South Slavey (ᑌᓀ ᒐ Dene-thah, Dené Dháh or Dene Zhatıé) is spoken by the Slavey (South Slavey) people, which 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 the District of Mackenzie, northeast Alberta, northwest British Columbia.

Statistics: Speakers: 2,310 (2006 Statistics Canada)

Some communities are bilingual, with the children learning Slavey at home and English when they enter school. Still other communities are monolingual in Slavey

Alternate 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.

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 merged into fricatives, whereas Mountain lacks /w/ (on blue). In addition, for some speakers of Hare, an alveolar flap /ɾ/ has developed into a separate phoneme.

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 the voiced fricative to coincide with pre-existing /w/. The most complicated situation is found in Hare, where the plain stop is (as in Bearlake) a labialized velar, the ejective member is replaced by a /ʔw/ sequence, the voiceless fricative is (as in Mountain) /f/, into which the aspirated affricate has collapsed, and the voiced fricative has (again as in Bearlake) been lenited to /w/.

Phonological processes

The following phonological and phonetic statements apply to all four dialects of Slavey.

Vowels

Tone

Slavey has two tones:

In Slavey orthography, high tone is marked with an acute accent, and low tone is unmarked.

Tones are both lexical and grammatical.

Lexical: /ɡáh/ 'along' vs. /ɡàh/ '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.

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:

Ya-h-tí

1-13-14

Yahtí "S/he speaks" (basic form)

Xa-ya-de-d-h-tí

1- 1- 9-13-13-14

Xayadedhtí "S/he prayed"

Go-∅-deeh

6-13-14

Godee "S/he talks"

da-go-∅-dee

4-6-13-14

dagodee "S/he stutters"

Gender

Slavey has three different genders, one of which is unmarked. The other two are marked by go- and de-. These prefixes are added to verb themes. Only some verb themes, however, allow gender prefixes.

Go- is used for nouns that mark location in either time or space. The gender pronoun can be a direct object, an oblique object or a possessor. Here are examples of each

kú̜e̒ godetl’e̒h

house 3 paints area

“S/he is painting the house"

ko̜̒e̒ gocha

house area.in shelter

“in the shelter of the house"

ko̜̒e̒ godeshi̜te̒ee

house area.floor

“floor of the house"

Some examples of these areal nouns are house (ko̜̒e̒), land (de̒h), river (deh), and winder (xay).

De- marks wood, leaves and branches. This gender is optional: some speakers use it and others do not. Examples of its use follows

Tse de̜la

Wood

“wood is located"

ʔo̜̒k’ay t’oge de̒ʔo̜

Bird nest wooden O is located

“A bird’s nest is located"

Tse ts’edehdla̒

Wood 3split wood

“S/he is splitting wood"

Number

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

Example:

tewhehchú

Water classifier

"A clothlike object is in the water"

Tense

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

An immediate future can be formed by de- inceptive in position 9 plus y-

dałe

3 fut.start out

“s/he is just ready to go"

nadedajéh

3 fut.start to heal

“it is just starting to heal"

Aspect

Slavey has two semantic aspects: perfective and imperfective.

Perfective is represented in position 11.

Examples:

déhtla

3 pf.start off

"S/he started off."

whá goyįdee

long 3 pf.talk

"S/he talked for a long time."

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

Kǫ́e gohtsį

hose 3 pf.build area PAST

“He had built a house"

Imperfective indicates that the reference time precedes the end of the event time.

Hejį

3 imp.sing

“s/he sing, s/he is singing"

Kǫ́e gohtsį begháyeyidá

house 3 imp.build area 1sg. pf.see 3

“I saw him building a house"

Word order

Slavey is a verb-final language. The basic word order is SOV.

Examples:

Dene ʔelá thehtsi̜̒

Man boat made

"The man made the boat"

tli̜ ts’ǫ̀dani káyi̜̒ta

dog child bit

"The dog bit the child"

Oblique objects precede the Direct object.

Example

T’eere denǫ gha ʔerákeeʔee wihsi̜

girl REFL.mother for parka made.

"The girl made a parka for her mother."

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

melįé nátla

3.dog. possessive 3 is fast

“His/her dog is fast."

bekée whihtsį

3.slippers.possessive 1sg. Made

“I made his/her slippers."

ye- fourth person

yekée whehtsį

4. slippers.possessive 3 made

“S/he made his/her slippers."

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

kulí̜é rała

3pl.dog.possessive 3 is fast

“Their dog is fast."

goyúé k'enáʔeniihtse

3pl.clothes.possessive 1sg. washed

“I washed their clothes."

Conjunctions

There are both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions in Slavey.

Coordinating

gots'éh "and, and then"

tse tádiihtth į gots'ę goyíi naehddhí

wood 1sg. cut and area.in 1sg. warmed

“I cut some wood and then I warmed myself up inside."

dene ʔéhdá jíye kanįwę gots'ę ʔéhdá daʔuʔa

people some berry 3 picks and some 3 opt.fish

“Some people will pick berries and some will fish."

kúlú, kólí, kúú, kóó, ékóó, góa “but"

ʔekó͔ náohtlah nehthę góa nehji

there 1sg. opt.go 1sg. want but 1sg. be afraid

“I want to go there but I'm afraid."

sine ts'ó͔dane gogháiidá kúlú dedine gołį ʔajá

1sg. child 1sg. saw 3pl. but 3sg. instead 3 became

“I was supposed to watch the children but he did it instead."

Subordinating conjunctions

ʔenįdé, nįdé, ndé, néh “if, when, whenever"

ʔįts'é gehk'é nįdé segha máhsi

moose 3pl. shoot if 1sg.for thanks

“If they shoot a moose, I'll be grateful."

dora bekwí ohts'í nįwę nįdé yehts'í

3. head 1sg.opt.comb 3 wants of 3 combs 4

“Whenever Dora wants to comb my hair, she combs it."

-were “before"

shuruhté were selejée daderéʔ o͔ ʔagúlá

1sg. opt.go to sleep before woodbox 3 is full 1sg. made area

“Before I went to bed, I filled to woodbox."

-ts'ę “since, from"

segó͔łį gots'ę jo͔ deneilé

1sg. was born area.from here 1sg. lived

“I lived here since I was born."

-hé “because, so"

se wehse yihé godihk'o͔ yíle2

wood 3 is wet because 1sg. make fire NEG

“Because the wood is wet, I can't make fire."

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.

ʔeyi [dene] goyidee I híshá

The man 1sg. talked COMP 3 is tall

“the man whom I talked to is tall."

lį gah hedéhfe I gháyeyidá

dog rabbit 3 chased COMP 1sg. saw

“I saw the dog that chased the rabbit."

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

Also in 2015, the University of Victoria 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.

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.