Gwich’in language

Last updated
Gwich’in
Dinjii Zhu’ Ginjik
Native to Canada, United States
Region Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska
Ethnicity3,000 Gwich'in people (2007)
Native speakers
ca. 560 (2007–2016) [1]
Latin (Northern Athabaskan alphabet)
Official status
Official language in
Flag of Canada.svg  Canada [2]
Flag of Alaska.svg  Alaska [3]
Language codes
ISO 639-2 gwi
ISO 639-3 gwi
Glottolog gwic1235 [4]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Gwich’in language (Dinju Zhuh K’yuu) [5] belongs to the Athabaskan language family and is spoken by the Gwich’in First Nation (Canada) / Alaska Native People (United States). It is also known in older or dialect-specific publications as Kutchin, Takudh, Tukudh, or Loucheux. [6] Gwich'in is spoken primarily in the towns of Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Old Crow, and Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River) in the Northwest Territories and Yukon of Canada. [7] In Alaska of the United States, Gwich’in is spoken in Beaver, Circle, Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Birch Creek, Arctic Village, Eagle, and Venetie. [8] [ not in citation given ]

Athabaskan languages large group of indigenous peoples of North America

Athabaskan is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three groups of contiguous languages: Northern, Pacific Coast and Southern. Kari and Potter 2010:10 place the total territory of the 53 Athabaskan languages at 1,563,000 mi2 or 4,022,000 km2.

Alaska Natives indigenous peoples of Alaska

Alaska Natives are indigenous peoples of Alaska, United States and include: Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures. They are often defined by their language groups. Many Alaska Natives are enrolled in federally recognized Alaska Native tribal entities, who in turn belong to 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations, who administer land and financial claims.

Inuvik Town in Northwest Territories, Canada

Inuvik is a town in the Northwest Territories of Canada and is the administrative centre for the Inuvik Region.

Contents

The ejective affricate in the name Gwich’in is usually written with symbol U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, though the correct character for this use (with expected glyph and typographic properties) is U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE.

In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.

An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation. It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. English has two affricate phonemes, and, often spelled ch and j, respectively.

Current status

Few Gwichʼin speak their heritage language as a majority of the population shifts to English. According to the UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, Gwich’in is now "severely endangered." There are about 260 Gwich’in speakers in Canada out of a total Gwich’in population of 1,900. About 300 out of a total Alaska Gwich’in population of 1,100 speak the language. [5]

UNESCO Specialised agency of the United Nations

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris. Its declared purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through educational, scientific, and cultural reforms in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. It is the successor of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.

In 1988, the NWT Official Languages Act named Gwich'in as an official language of the Northwest Territories, and the Official Languages of Alaska Law as amended declared Gwich'in a recognized language in 2014. [5]

The Gwich'in language is taught regularly at the Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow, Yukon Territory. [8]

Projects are underway to document the language and enhance the writing and translation skills of younger Gwich'in speakers. In one project, lead research associate and fluent speaker Gwich’in elder Kenneth Frank works with linguists and young Gwich'in speakers affiliated with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy. [9]

The Alaska Native Language Center, established in 1972 in Fairbanks, Alaska, is a research center focusing on the research and documentation of the Native languages of Alaska. It publishes grammars, dictionaries, folklore collections and research materials, as well as hosting an extensive archive of written materials relating to Eskimo, North Athabaskan and related languages. The Center provides training, materials and consultation for educators, researchers and others working with Alaska Native languages. The closely affiliated Alaska Native Language Program offers degrees in Central Yup'ik and Inupiaq at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and works toward the documentation and preservation of these languages.

Classification

Gwich’in is a member of the Northern Athabaskan subgroup of the Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit language family. It shares the Hän-Kutchin subdivision with the Hän language. [10]

Dialects

There are two main dialects of Gwich’in, eastern and western, which are delineated roughly at the Canada–US border. [10] There are several dialects within these subgroupings, including Fort Yukon Gwich’in, Arctic Village Gwich’in, Western Canada Gwich’in (Takudh, Tukudh, Loucheux), and Arctic Red River. Each village has unique dialect differences, idioms, and expressions. The Old Crow people in the northern Yukon have approximately the same dialect as those bands living in Venetie and Arctic Village, Alaska.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Gwichʼin in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets): [8]

Labial Interdental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
central lateral plain labialized
Nasal voiced (m /m/)n /n/
voiceless nh //
Plosive plain(b /p/)d /t/dr /ʈ/g /k/gw // /ʔ/
aspiratedt //tr /ʈʰ/k //kw /kʷʰ/
ejective t’ //tr’ /ʈʼ/k’ //
prenasalized nd /ⁿd/
Affricate plainddh //dz /ts/dl //j //
aspiratedtth /tθʰ/ts /tsʰ/tl /tɬʰ/ch /tʃʰ/
ejectivetth’ /tθʼ/ts’ /tsʼ/tl’ /tɬʼ/ch’ /tʃʼ/
prenasalizednj /ⁿdʒ/
Fricative voicedv /v/dh /ð/z /z/zhr /ʐ/zh /ʒ/gh /ɣ/ghw /ɣʷ/
voiceless(f /f/)th /θ/s /s/ł /ɬ/shr /ʂ/sh /ʃ/kh /x/h /h/
Approximant voicedl /l/r /ɻ/y /j/w /w/
voicelessrh /ɻ̥/

Vowels

Gwich’in language in place names

The Porcupine River, a 916-kilometre (569 mi) tributary of the Yukon River in Canada and the United States, is called Ch’ôonjik [11] in Gwich’in.

Key vocabulary

Vadzaih (caribou) are an integral part of First Nations and Inuit oral histories and legends including the Gwich'in creation story of how Gwich’in people and the caribou separated from a single entity. [12] The caribou is the cultural symbol and a keystone subsistence species of the Gwich'in, just as the buffalo is to the Plains Indians. [9]

Elders have identified at least 150 descriptive Gwich'in names for all of the bones, organs, and tissues "Associated with the caribou's anatomy are not just descriptive Gwich'in names for all of the body parts including bones, organs, and tissues as well as "an encyclopedia of stories, songs, games, toys, ceremonies, traditional tools, skin clothing, personal names and surnames, and a highly developed ethnic cuisine." [9]

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References

  1. Gwich’in at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
  2. Official Languages of the Northwest Territories Archived 2013-12-06 at the Wayback Machine. (map)
  3. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/21/305688602/alaska-oks-bill-making-native-languages-official
  4. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Gwich'in". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  5. 1 2 3 "Gwich'in". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  6. McDonald. ''A Grammar of the Tukudh Language''. Yellowknife, N.W.T.: Curriculum Division, Dept. of Education, Government of the Northwest Territories, 1972.
  7. Firth, William G. 1991. Teetł'it Gwìch’in K’yùu Gwi’dìnehtł’èe Nagwant Tr’agwàłtsàii: A Junior Dictionary of the Teetl'it Gwich'in Language. Department of Culture and Communications, Government of the Northwest Territories. ISBN   978-1-896337-12-8.
  8. 1 2 3 "Yukon Native Language Centre". ynlc.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  9. 1 2 3 Mishler, Craig (2014), "Linguistic Team Studies Caribou Anatomy", Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCOS), retrieved 11 January 2015
  10. 1 2 "Did you know Gwich'in is severely endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  11. Holton, Gary (July 16, 2013). "Alaska Native Language Archive: Alaska Place Names". University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  12. "Vuntut Gwich'in", First Voices, 2001–2013, retrieved 17 January 2014

Further reading