| Dogrib | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tłįchǫ Yatiì | ||
| Spoken in | Canada | |
| Region | Northwest Territories | |
| Total speakers | 2,640 [1] | |
| Language family | Dené-Yeniseian
|
|
| 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 | |
 |
||
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Dogrib, the English translation of the indigenous name Tłįchǫ Yatiì (IPA: [tɬʰĩtʃʰõ jatʰîː]), is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the First Nations Tłįchǫ 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 |
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/
- į /ĩ/
- ǫ /õ/
- long
- aa /aː/
- ee /eː/
- ii /iː/
- oo /oː/
- ąą /ãː/
- ęę /ẽː/
- įį /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
- short
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.
Notes
Further reading
- Coleman, Phyllis Young. Dogrib Phonology. Ann Arbor, Michigan, [etc.]: University Microfilms International, 1979.
- Saxon, Leslie and Mary Siemens. Tłįchǫ Yatiì Enįhtł'è = Dogrib Dictionary. Rae-Edzo, N.W.T.: Dogrib Divisional Board of Education, 1996.
- Saxon, Leslie and Mary Siemens. Tłįchǫ Yatiì Multimedia Dictionary [1].
External links
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