Chipewyan | |
---|---|
Denesuline | |
ᑌᓀᓱᒼᕄᓀ Dënesųłiné | |
Native to | Canada |
Region | Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba; southern Northwest Territories and Nunavut |
Ethnicity | Chipewyan people |
Native speakers
|
12,000 (2011 census) |
Dené–Yeniseian?
|
|
Official status | |
Official language in
|
Northwest Territories (Canada) |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 |
|
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | chip1261 |
Chipewyan /tʃɪpəˈwaɪən/, ethnonym Dënesųłiné IPA: [ tènɛ̀sũ̀ɬìnɛ́], is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of northwestern Canada. It is categorized as part of the Northern Athabaskan language family. Dënesųłiné has nearly 12,000 speakers in Canada, mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. It has official status only in the Northwest Territories, alongside 8 other aboriginal languages: Cree, Dogrib, Gwich’in, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey and South Slavey.
Most Chipewyan people now use Dené and Dënesųłiné to refer to themselves as a people and to their language, respectively. The Saskatchewan communities of Fond-du-Lac, Black Lake, Wollaston Lake and La Loche are among these.
The 39 consonants of Dënesųłiné: