Dene Suline language

Infobox Language
name=Dene Suline
nativename=Dëne Sųłiné
states=Canada
region=Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba; southern Northwest Territories and Nunavut
speakers=11,895 [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=0&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=1&IPS=&METH=0&ORDER=1&PID=89189&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=No&StartRow=1&SUB=705&Temporal=2006&Theme=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= Statistics Canada: 2006 Census] ]
iso2=chp
iso3=chp
familycolor=Dené-Yeniseian
fam2=Na-Dené
fam3=Athabaskan-Eyak
fam4=Athabaskan
fam5=Northern Athabaskan

Dene Suline (also Dëne Sųłiné, Dene Sųłiné, Chipewyan, 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 and therefore related to the Navajo language. Dene Suline has over 11,000 speakers in Canada, mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, but only has official status in the Northwest Territories alongside 8 other aboriginal languages: Cree, Dogrib, IPA|Gwichʼin, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey. [http://www.justice.gov.nt.ca/PDF/ACTS/Official_Languages.pdf Northwest Territories Official Languages Act, 1988] (as amended 1988, 1991-1992, 2003)]

ounds

Consonants

The 39 consonants of Dene Suline:

Dene Suline also has 9 oral and nasal diphthongs of the form "vowel" + IPA|/j/.

Tone

Dene Suline has two tones:
* high
* low

References

ee also

* Chipewyan Syllabics

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=chp Chipewyan] at Ethnologue
* [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/dene.html Our Languages: Dene] (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/history/index.html history & background]
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/reserves/index.html reservations]
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/reserves/map.html reservation maps]
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/preservation/index.html preservation/revitalization]
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/soundsystem/alphabet.html alphabet]
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/grammar/index.html grammar]
** [http://www.sicc.sk.ca/heritage/sils/ourlanguages/dene/commonterms/index.html 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.
* Osgood, Cornelius; & Hoijer, Harry (Eds.). (1946). "Linguistic structures of native America". Viking fund publications in anthropology (No. 6). New York: The Viking Fund. (Reprinted 1963, 1965, 1967, & 1971, New York: Johnson Reprint Corp.).