Dene Suline ᑌᓀᓱᒼᕄᓀ Dëne Sųłiné Spoken in Canada Region Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba; southern Northwest Territories and Nunavut Total speakers 11,895 1 Language family Dené-Yeniseian Na-Dené Athabaskan-Eyak Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Dene Suline Language codes ISO 639-1 None ISO 639-2 chp ISO 639-3 chp Linguasphere – Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Dene Suline or Chipewyan (also Dëne Sųłiné, Dene Sųłiné, Dene Suliné, Dëne Suliné, Dene Soun’liné or just Dene) is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of central Canada. It is a part of the Athabaskan family. Dene Suline has over 11,000 speakers in Canada, mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories,1 but only has official status in the Northwest Territories alongside 8 other aboriginal languages: Cree, Dogrib, Gwich’in, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey.2 Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 1.3 Tone 2 See also 3 References 4 External links 5 Bibliography Sounds Consonants

The 39 consonants of Dene Suline:   Bilabial Inter- dental Dental Post- alveolar Velar/Uvular Glottal central lateral plain labial Nasal m m   n n           Plosive plain b p   d t     g k gw kʷ   aspirated     t tʰ     k kʰ kw kʷʰ   ejective     tʼ tʼ     kʼ kʼ kwʼ kʼʷ ɂ ʔ Affricate plain   ddh tθ dz ts dl tɬ j tʃ       aspirated   tth tθʰ ts tsʰ tł tɬʰ ch tʃʰ       ejective   tthʼ tθʼ tsʼ tsʼ tłʼ tɬʼ chʼ tʃʼ       Fricative voiceless   th θ s s ł ɬ sh ʃ hh χ hhw χʷ h h voiced   dh ð z z l ɮ zh ʒ gh ʁ ghw ʁʷ   Trill     r r          

The "velar" fricatives are actually uvular. Vowels Dene Suline has vowels of 6 differing qualities.   Front Central Back Close i i   u u Close-mid ë/e e   o o Open-mid e ɛ     Open   a a   Most vowels can be either oral or nasal short or long As a result, Dene Suline has 18 phonemic vowels:   Front Central Back short long short long short long Close oral i iː     u uː nasal ĩ ĩː     ũ ũː Close-mid e       o   Open-mid oral ɛ ɛː         nasal ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː         Open oral     a aː     nasal     ã ãː    

Dene Suline also has 9 oral and nasal diphthongs of the form vowel + /j/.   Front Central Back oral nasal oral nasal oral nasal Close         uj ũj Mid ej ẽj əj   oj õj Open     aj ãj     Tone Dene Suline has two tones: high low See also Aboriginal peoples in Canada portal Chipewyan Syllabics References ^ a b Statistics Canada: 2006 Census ^ Northwest Territories Official Languages Act, 1988 (as amended 1988, 1991-1992, 2003) External links Chipewyan at Ethnologue Our Languages: Dene (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre) history & background reservations reservation maps preservation/revitalization alphabet grammar terms/phrases (includes sound files) Bibliography Cook, Eung-Do. (2004). A grammar of Dëne Sųłiné (Chipewyan). Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics - Special Athabaskan Number, Memoir 17. Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics. ISBN 0-921064-17-9. Cook, Eung-Do. 2006. "The Patterns of Consonantal Acquisition and Change in Chipewyan (Dene Suline)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 72, no. 2: 236. De Reuse, Willem. 2006. "A Grammar of Dene Suline (Chipewyan) (Cook)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 72, no. 4: 535. Elford, Leon W. Dene sųłiné yati ditł'ísé = Dene sųłiné reader. Prince Albert, SK: Northern Canada Mission Distributors, 2001. ISBN 1896968287 Gessner, S. 2005. "Properties of Tone in Dene Suline". Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science. Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. 269: 229-248. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com). Li, Fang-Kuei. (1946). Chipewyan. In C. Osgood & H. Hoijer (Eds.), Linguistic structures of native America (pp. 398–423). New York: The Viking fund publications in anthropology (No. 6). (Reprinted 1963, 1965, 1967, & 1971, New York: Johnson Reprint Corp.).