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| Gwich’in Gwich’in |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Canada, United States | |
| Region: | Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska | |
| Total speakers: | 770 (1998 Statistics Canada) | |
| Language family: | Dené-Yeniseian Na-Dené Athabaskan-Eyak Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Gwich’in |
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| Writing system: | Latin (Northern Athabaskan variant) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | gwi | |
| ISO 639-3: | gwi | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Gwich’in language is the Athabaskan language of the Gwich’in indigenous people. In the Northwest Territories and Yukon of Canada, it is used principally in the towns of Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Old Crow, and Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River). There are about 430 Gwich’in speakers in Canada out of a total Gwich'in population of 1,900.
In Alaska, Gwich’in is spoken in Beaver, Circle, Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Birch Creek, Arctic Village, Eagle, and Venetie, Alaska. About 300 out of a total Alaska Gwich’in population of 1,100 speak the language.
It is an official language of the Northwest Territories.
The glottal stop 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.
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Gwich'in is a member of the Canadian sub-group of the Athabaskan languages, of the Na-Dene family of languages. It shares the Han-Kutchin subgroup with the Han language.
There are several dialects of Gwich'in, including Fort Yukon Gwich'in, Arctic Village Gwich'in, Western Canada Gwich'in (Takudh, Tukudh, Loucheux), and Arctic Red River.
The consonants of Gwich'in in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):
| Labial | Interdental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Lateral | Plain | Labialized | |||||||
| Nasal | Voiced | m /m/ | n /n/ | |||||||
| Voiceless | nh /n̥/ | |||||||||
| Plosive | Voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | dr /ɖ/ | g /g/ | gw /gʷ/ | ||||
| Voiceless | t /t/ | tr /ʈ/ | k /k/ | kw /kʷ/ | ’ /ʔ/ | |||||
| Ejective | t’ /t’/ | tr’ /ʈ’/ | k’ /k’/ | |||||||
| Nasal release | nd /dⁿ/ | |||||||||
| Affricate | Voiced | ddh /dð/ | dz /dz/ | dl /dɮ/ | dj /dʒ/ | |||||
| Voiceless | tth /tθ/ | ts /ts/ | tl /tɬ/ | ch /tʃ/ | ||||||
| Ejective | tth’ /tθ’/ | ts’ /ts’/ | tl’ /tɬ’/ | ch’ /tʃ’/ | ||||||
| Nasal release | nj /dʒɲ/ | |||||||||
| Fricative | Voiced | v /v/ | dh /ð/ | z /z/ | zhr /ʐ/ | zh /ʒ/ | gh /ɣ/ | ghw /ɣʷ/ | ||
| Voiceless | th /θ/ | s /s/ | ł /ɬ/ | shr /ʂ/ | sh /ʃ/ | kh /x/ | h /h/ | |||
| Approxi- mant |
Voiced | l /l/ | r /ɻ/ | y /j/ | w /w/ | |||||
| Voiceless | rh /ɻ̥/ | |||||||||
