Slavey (also Slave) (pronounced: ) is an Athabaskan language spoken among the Slavey First Nations people of Canada.

In older literature, the name of the language was spelt Slave; however, the connotations of this, along with the pronunciation of the homograph slave (the final e should be pronounced) have caused the change to Slavey instead.

The language can be written using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics or the Roman alphabet.

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 cultural consultant for the show.

North Slavey language and South Slavey language

North Slavey language is spoken in the Mackenzie District along the middle Mackenzie River from Fort Norman north, around Great Bear Lake, and in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Canadian territory of Northwest Territories.

Statistics: Speakers: 290 (1998 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Dené, Mackenzian, Slave

Dialects: Hare, Bearlake, Mountain

South Slavey language or Dene-thah, is spoken in the region of Great Slave Lake, upper Mackenzie River and drainage in Mackenzie District, northeast Alberta, northwest British Columbia.

Statistics: Speakers: 2,620 (1998 Statistics Canada)

Alternate names: Slavi, Slave, Dené, Mackenzian

Sounds

Consonants

Bearlake

The 35 consonants of Bearlake:

Hare

The 30 (or 31) consonants of Hare:

For some speakers of Hare, has developed into a separate phoneme.

Mountain

The 33 consonants of Mountain:

Slavey (proper)

The 34 (or 35) consonants of Slavey (proper):

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. .
• Velars 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 defricated 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 sometimes velar, i.e.
  • → or
  • → or
  • → or
• may be velar or glottal, i.e.
  • → or

Vowels

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'

Grammar

Bibliography

• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Rice, Keren. (1989). A grammar of Slave. Mouton grammar library (No. 5). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-010779-1.

Northern Athabaskan languages | Languages of Canada | First Nations in the Northwest Territories | Indigenous languages of the North American Subarctic

Slave