Not to be confused with Dogri language. Dogrib Tłı̨chǫ Yatiì Spoken in Canada Region Northwest Territories Total speakers 2,640 1 Language family Dené-Yeniseian Na-Dené Athabaskan-Eyak Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Dogrib Official status Official language in Northwest Territories Regulated by No official regulation Language codes ISO 639-1 None ISO 639-2 dgr ISO 639-3 dgr Linguasphere – Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Dogrib, the English translation of the indigenous name Tłı̨chǫ Yatiì (IPA: [tɬʰĩtʃʰõ jatʰîː]), is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the First Nations Tłı̨chǫ people of the Canadian territory Northwest Territories. According to Statistics Canada in 2006, there were approximately 2,640 people who spoke Dogrib.1

The Dogrib region covers the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, reaching almost up to Great Bear Lake. Rae-Edzo, now known by its Dogrib name, Behchokǫ̀, is the largest community in the Dogrib Region. Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 2 Grammar 3 Examples 4 Trivia 5 Notes 6 Further reading 7 External links Phonology Consonants The consonants of Dogrib in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):   Bilabial Alveolar Post- alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal central lateral plain labialized Nasal plain   m  /m/   n  /n/             prenasalized   mb  /ᵐb/   nd  /ⁿd/             Plosive voiced   b  /b/   d  /d/         g  /ɡ/   gw  /ɡʷ/   voiceless     t  /t/         k  /k/   kw  /kʷ/   ’  /ʔ/ ejective     t’  /tʼ/         k’  /kʼ/   kw’  /kʷʼ/   Affricate voiced     dz  /dz/   dl  /dɮ/   j  /dʒ/         voiceless     ts  /ts/   tl  /tɬ/   ch  /tʃ/         ejective     ts’  /tsʼ/   tl’  /tɬʼ/   ch’  /tʃʼ/         Fricative voiced     z  /z/     zh  /ʒ/     gh  /ɣ/     voiceless     s  /s/   ł  /ɬ/   sh  /ʃ/     x  /x/     h  /h/ Approximant voiced     r  /ɹ/   l  /l/     y  /j/     w  /w/   voiceless               wh  /ʍ/   Vowels short a /a/ e /e/ i /i/ o /o/ ą /ã/ ę /ẽ/ ı̨ /ĩ/ ǫ /õ/ long aa /aː/ ee /eː/ ii /iː/ oo /oː/ ąą /ãː/ ęę /ẽː/ ı̨ı̨ /ĩː/ ǫǫ /õː/ nasal vowels are marked by an ogonek (called wighǫą - 'its little nose' in Dogrib) e.g., ą low tone is marked with a grave accent (called wets'aà - 'its hat' in Dogrib), e.g., à high tone is never marked Grammar

Typologically, Dogrib is an agglutinating, polysynthetic head-marking language, but many of its affixes combine into contractions more like fusional languages. The canonical word order of Dogrib is SOV. Dogrib words are modified primarily by prefixes, which is unusual for an SOV language (suffixes are expected). In addition to verbs and nouns, there are pronouns, clitics of various functions, demonstratives, numerals, postpositions, adverbs, and conjunctions in Dogrib. The class of adjectives is very small, probably around two dozen words: most descriptive words are verbs rather than adjectives. Examples

2 Tłı̨chǫ got'ı̨ı̨̀ Tłı̨chǫ people tłı̨ dog tłı̨cho horse (literally: 'big dog') łıwe / łıe fish detʼǫ duck eyè egg ejietʼò milk dìga wolf tʼooh poplar deh river elà canoe dı island kwe rock sìh / shìh mount tı lake zhah snow chǫ / tsǫ rain ło smoke kǫ̀ house degoo white dezǫ black dekʼo red Trivia 3 In a discussion of the words "Nohtsi Naowo" (pronounced, roughly, note-see na-whoa; meaning “God’s rule” or “God’s authority”), "Nohtsi Wek’e" (note-see wek-ay; meaning “God’s way”) and "Nohtsi K’aowo" (note-see ka-whoa), Shawn Maclellan comments: "George [Tatsiechele] explains it this way, “When someone is arguing with you on a matter that you know is true, and won’t listen to what you have to say, the only thing you can say is Nohtsi K’aowo, God is the boss!”" Notes ^ a b Statistics Canada: 2006 Census ^ *http://tlicho.ling.uvic.ca/ Dogrib Dictionary Database ^ *http://vineyard.electricurrent.com/engine.cfm?i=47&e=10187&cid=100000531 Further reading Coleman, Phyllis Young. Dogrib Phonology. Ann Arbor, Michigan, [etc.]: University Microfilms International, 1979. Saxon, Leslie and Mary Siemens. Tłı̨chǫ Yatiì Enįhtł'è = Dogrib Dictionary. Rae-Edzo, N.W.T.: Dogrib Divisional Board of Education, 1996. Saxon, Leslie and Mary Siemens. Tłı̨chǫ Yatiì Multimedia Dictionary [1]. External links Canada portal Languages portal Dogrib at Ethnologue