| Gwichʼin | |
|---|---|
| Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik | |
| Native to | Canada,United States |
| Region | Canada (Northwest Territories,Yukon),United States (Alaska) |
| Ethnicity | 3,000Gwichʼin people (2007) |
Native speakers | ca. 560 (2007–2016)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin (Northern Athabaskan alphabet) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Canada (Northwest Territories)[2] United States(Alaska)[3] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | gwi |
| ISO 639-3 | gwi |
| Glottolog | gwic1235 |
| ELP | Gwich'in |
 Gwich'in is classified as Severely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| People | Dinjii Zhuu Gwichʼin |
|---|---|
| Language | Dinju Zhuh Kʼyuu |
| Country | Gwichʼin Nành, Denendeh ᑌᓀᐣᑌᐧ |
TheGwichʼin language (Dinju Zhuh Kʼyuu)[4] belongs to theAthabaskan language family and is spoken by theGwich'in First Nation (Canada) /Alaska Native People (United States). It is also known in older or dialect-specific publications asKutchin,Takudh,Tukudh, orLoucheux.[5] Gwich'in is spoken primarily in the towns ofInuvik,Aklavik,Fort McPherson (akaTeetł'it Zheh), andTsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River), all in theNorthwest Territories andOld Crow inYukon of Canada.[6] InAlaska of the United States, Gwichʼin is spoken inBeaver,Circle,Fort Yukon,Chalkyitsik,Birch Creek,Arctic Village,Eagle, andVenetie.[7][failed verification]
Theejectiveaffricate in the nameGwichʼin is usually written with symbolU+2019 ’RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, though the correct character for this use (with expected glyphand typographic properties) isU+02BC ʼMODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE.
According to theUNESCOInteractive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, Gwichʼin is at present severely endangered. There are about 260 Gwichʼin speakers in Canada out of a total Gwichʼin population of 1,900. About 300 out of a total Alaska Gwichʼin population of 1,100 speak the language.[4] Gwichʼin speakers have been shifting from theirheritage language to English as themajority language of both the US and Canada.
There are two main varieties of Gwichʼin, Eastern and Western, which are delineated roughly at theCanada–US border.[8] There are several dialects within these subgroupings, including Fort Yukon Gwichʼin, Arctic Village Gwichʼin, Western Canada Gwichʼin (Takudh, Tukudh, Loucheux), and Arctic Red River. Each village has unique pronunciation features, vocabulary, and expressions.
Inhabitants ofOld Crow in the northern Yukon speak a similar dialect to those bands living inVenetie andArctic Village, Alaska. Kâachik and Tâachik dialects are spoken in Johnson Creek village.[9]
In 1988, theNWT Official Languages Act named Gwich'in an official language of the Northwest Territories, and the Official Languages of Alaska Law as amended declared Gwich'in a recognized language in 2014.[4]
The Gwich'in language is taught regularly at the Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow, Yukon.[7]
Projects are underway to furtherdocument the language from alinguistic standpoint, and foster the writing and translation skills of younger Gwich'in speakers. In one project, lead research associate and fluent speaker Gwichʼin elder Kenneth Frank works with linguists and young Gwich'in speakers affiliated with theAlaska Native Language Center at theUniversity of Alaska inFairbanks to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy (Mishler and Frank 2020).[10]
Assimilation efforts throughresidential schools played a factor in creating a cultural disruption and a language shift. One of the goals of residential schools was towipe out indigenous culture andreplace it with the European culture, seen as more conducive to “civilized” society. In the process, indigenous children weretaken away from their families and placed in a dedicated school (“Indian Schools” in the US).
Indigenous children were often punished for speaking First-Nation languages, leading children to abandon their heritage languages. Residential schools caused major cultural disruption also among the Gwich’in.[11]
The consonants of Gwichʼin are shown inIPA notation below, withorthographic symbols in brackets:[7]
| Labial | Inter- dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | labialized | |||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | plain | (p⟨b⟩) | tθ⟨ddh⟩ | t⟨d⟩ | ts⟨dz⟩ | tɬ⟨dl⟩ | ʈʂ⟨dr⟩ | tʃ⟨j⟩ | k⟨g⟩ | kʷ⟨gw⟩ | ʔ⟨ʼ⟩ |
| aspirated | tθʰ⟨tth⟩ | tʰ⟨t⟩ | tsʰ⟨ts⟩ | tɬʰ⟨tl⟩ | ʈʂʰ⟨tr⟩ | tʃʰ⟨ch⟩ | kʰ⟨k⟩ | kʷʰ⟨kw⟩ | |||
| ejective | tθʼ⟨tthʼ⟩ | tʼ⟨tʼ⟩ | tsʼ⟨tsʼ⟩ | tɬʼ⟨tlʼ⟩ | ʈʂʼ⟨trʼ⟩ | tʃʼ⟨chʼ⟩ | kʼ⟨kʼ⟩ | ||||
| prenasalized | ⁿd⟨nd⟩ | ⁿdʒ⟨nj⟩ | |||||||||
| Fricative | voiced | v⟨v⟩ | ð⟨dh⟩ | z⟨z⟩ | ʐ⟨zhr⟩ | ʒ⟨zh⟩ | ɣ⟨gh⟩ | ɣʷ⟨ghw⟩ | |||
| voiceless | (f⟨f⟩) | θ⟨th⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ɬ⟨ł⟩ | ʂ⟨shr⟩ | ʃ⟨sh⟩ | x⟨kh⟩ | xʷ⟨khw⟩ | h⟨h⟩ | ||
| Sonorant | voiced | (m⟨m⟩) | n⟨n⟩ | l⟨l⟩ | ɻ⟨r⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | w⟨w⟩ | ||||
| voiceless | n̥⟨nh⟩ | ɻ̥⟨rh⟩ | |||||||||
Gwich’in has six phonemicvowel qualities/ieaou/ which contrast induration,nasality, and tones.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i⟨i⟩ | iː⟨ii⟩ | u⟨u⟩ | uː⟨uu⟩ | ||
| Mid | e⟨e⟩ | eː⟨ee⟩ | o⟨o⟩ | oː⟨oo⟩ | ||
| Open | a⟨a⟩ | aː⟨aa⟩ | ||||
Short vowels show different vowel qualities from their long counterparts
Gwichʼin has moderate complexity ofsyllable structure, in which the maximal syllable shape is CCVC. However, no consonant clusters occur within a syllable besides /Cj/ onsets, as in /ɬjə̃́h/łyąh “hook”, or -/tʰjɛ̀ʔ/ -tyèʼ “father” (i.e. /ʃɪ́tʰjɛ̀ʔ/shityèʼ “my father”). Word-medially, two-consonant sequences may occur. All consonants may occur syllable-initially (i.e. in onset position), but syllable-finally, no ejective, retroflex,affricate, interdental or labialized consonants occur. In coda-position, fricatives are also restricted to the glottal, lateral, and non-sibilant consonants.
| Coda | Example | English | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | oral | -k | tɬə́k | dlak | “squirrel” |
| glottal | -ʔ | tsʰɛ́ʔ | tse’ | “beaver” | |
| Fricative | glottal | -h | ʒɛ́h | zheh | “house” |
| lateral | -ɬ | tʃə́ɬ | jał | “fish hook” | |
| non-sibilant | -ð | tə́ʒə́ð | dazhadh | “fury” | |
| Sonorant | nasal | -n | ʈʂɪ́n | drin | “day” |
| lateral | -l | ə́htʰə̀l | ahtàl | “grouse” | |
| rhotic | -ɻ̥ | tʰéːʒɪ́ɻ̥ | teezhirh | “steam” | |
The missionaryRobert McDonald first started working on the written representation of Van Tat and Dagoo dialects Gwichʼin. He also produced aBible and ahymn book which was written in Gwichʼin in 1898. McDonald used English orthography as his model when representing Gwichʼin. This was unusual for missionaries at the time: other missionaries were translating the Bible from French into languages such asnorthern Slavey.[9] After 1960, Wycliffe Bible translator Richard Mueller introduced a new modified spelling system. The purpose of his writing system was to better distinguish the sounds of the Gwichʼin language. Later on, Mueller's writing system was officially adopted by theYukon Territory. The new writing system helped expand the uses of the Gwichʼin language since speakers previously found the system for writing Gwichʼin less user friendly.[11]
Gwich’in is a highlypolysynthetic, head-marking language with extensive exclusive prefixal inflection. Word order is relatively flexible but generally follows aSOV (Subject-Object-Verb)pattern. The language exhibitsevidentiality and verbal inflection that conveys aspectual distinctions rather than tense. Gwich’in uses postpositions rather than prepositions. Like other Athabaskan languages, Gwich’in has classifier prefixes in verbs that indicate transitivity and valency changes.
A verb in Gwich’in contains a great number of smaller meaningful units ormorphemes (e.g. in Englishun-spok-en) that combine to give the verb its intended meaning. A verb is composed of thestem preceded by a varying number ofprefixes, which in Gwich’in contain information about tense, aspect, and the number of people involved in the action.[12]
nintɬʼeltshùh
ni-ntɬʼe-l-tshùh
2S-object-1S-give
nintɬʼeltshùh
ni-ntɬʼe-l-tshùh
2S-object-1S-give
I gave it to you
Unlike English verbs, which come with comparatively very littlederivation and inflection (i.e. number of affixes), a Gwich’in verb is so rich in affixes that a single inflected and conjugated verb can correspond to whole sentences in English, as in (1).
In thePBS Kids television showMolly of Denali, the main character Molly comes from a family of Gwich'in background, and therefore uses words in the Gwich'in language such as 'Mahsi' Choo' throughout the show.[13] Molly shares her Gwich'in background with the show's creative producer, Princess Daazhraii Johnson.[14]
| Indigenous | |
|---|---|
| Sign languages | |
| Non-Indigenous | |
