Dogrib language

Not to be confused with Dogri language.

Dogrib
Tlinchon
Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì
Native to	Canada
Region	Northwest Territories
Ethnicity	Dogrib people
Native speakers	2,100 (2011 census)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Dogrib
Official status
Official language in	Northwest Territories (Canada)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	dgr
ISO 639-3	dgr
Glottolog	dogr1252

Dettah

N'Dilo

Behchoko

Gamèti

Wekweeti

Whatì

Tlicho communities in the Northwest Territories

The Dogrib language, or Tlinchon (/ˈtlɪntʃɒn/; Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì [tɬʰĩtʃʰõ jatʰîː]), is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Tłı̨chǫ (Digrib poeople) of the Canadian Northwest Territories. According to Statistics Canada in 2006, there were 2,640 people who spoke Tlinchon.

The Tlinchon region covers the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, reaching almost up to Great Bear Lake. Rae-Edzo, now known by its Tlinchon name, Behchokǫ̀, is the largest community in the Tlinchon region.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Tlinchon in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			central	lateral			plain	labialized
Nasal	plain	m  /m/	n  /n/
	prenasalized	mb  /ᵐb/	nd  /ⁿd/
Plosive	tenuis	(b  /p/)	d  /t/				g  /k/	gw  /kʷ/	’  /ʔ/
	aspirated		t  /tʰ/				k  /kʰ/	kw  /kʷʰ/
	ejective		t’  /tʼ/				k’  /kʼ/	kw’  /kʷʼ/
Affricate	tenuis		dz  /ts/	dl  /tɬ/	j  /tʃ/
	aspirated		ts  /tsʰ/	tl  /tɬʰ/	ch  /tʃʰ/
	ejective		ts’  /tsʼ/	tl’  /tɬʼ/	ch’  /tʃʼ/
Fricative	voiced		z  /z/	l  /ɮ/	zh  /ʒ/		gh  /ɣ/
	voiceless		s  /s/	ł  /ɬ/	sh  /ʃ/		x  /x/		h  /h/
Approximant	voiced		r  /ɾ~ɹ/			y  /j/		w  /w/
	voiceless							wh  /ʍ/

Tenuis stops may be lightly voiced. Aspirated stops may be fricated [Cˣʰ] before back vowels.

Vowels

The language uses long, short and nasal vowels, and distinguishes them in writing, along with low tone:

• Short:
  • a /a/
  • e /e/
  • ı /i/
  • o /o/
  • ą /ã/
  • ę /ẽ/
  • ı̨ /ĩ/
  • ǫ /õ/
• Long:
  • aa /aː/
  • ee /eː/
  • ıı /iː/
  • oo /oː/
  • ąą /ãː/
  • ęę /ẽː/
  • ı̨ı̨ /ĩː/
  • ǫǫ /õː/
• Nasal vowels are marked by an ogonek (called wįghǫą, 'its little nose', in Tlinchon) e.g. ą.
• Low tone is marked with a grave accent (called wets'aà, 'its hat', in Tlinchon), e.g. à.
• High tone is never marked.

Grammar

Typologically, Tlinchon is an agglutinating, polysynthetic head-marking language, but many of its affixes combine into contractions more like fusional languages. The canonical word order of Tlinchon is SOV. Tlinchon words are modified primarily by prefixes, which is unusual for an SOV language (suffixes are expected).

Like Spanish and Portuguese, Tlinchon has two verbs similar to English 'be'. One is used for ways of being that are more dynamic or temporary; the other for more permanent and immutable properties. For example, nàzèe-dǫǫ̀ ts’įįlį and nàzèe-dǫǫ̀ ats’įįt’e both mean 'we are hunters', but the first means that the speakers are currently hunters (for example, part of a hunting party), while the second implies that hunting is their regular profession.

In addition to verbs and nouns, there are pronouns, clitics of various functions, demonstratives, numerals, postpositions, adverbs, and conjunctions in Tlinchon. The class of adjectives is very small, probably around two dozen words: most descriptive words are verbs rather than adjectives.

Examples

Example words and phrases:

• Tłı̨chǫ got'ı̨ı̨̀ 'Tlinchon people'
• tłı̨ 'dog'
• tłı̨cho' 'horse' (literally 'big dog')
• łıwe / łıe 'fish'
• detʼǫ 'duck'
• eyè 'egg'
• ejietʼò 'milk'
• dìga 'wolf'
• tʼooh 'poplar'
• deh 'river'
• elà 'canoe'
• dı 'island'
• kwe 'rock'
• sìh /shìh 'mount'
• tı 'lake'
• zhah 'snow'
• chǫ /tsǫ' 'rain'
• ło 'smoke'
• kǫ̀ 'house'
• degoo 'white'
• dezǫ 'black'
• dekʼo 'red'
• dǫ nàke laànì nàtso 'strong like two people', the motto of the Tłįchǫ Government

See also

• Languages of Canada
• Indigenous languages of the Americas

External links

• Alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot
• Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì Multimedia Dictionary
• Dictionaries and Tåîchô language sources in PDF format
• Dogrib basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database