Babine-Witsuwitʼen language

Babine–Witsuwitʼen
Babine–Witsuwitʼen
Nedut'en–Witsuwitʼen
Native to	Canada
Region	British Columbia
Ethnicity	3,410 Nadotʼen (Babine) and Wetʼsuwetʼen in 7 of 9 communities (2014, FPCC)
Native speakers	135 (2016 census)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan–Eyak Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Babine–Witsuwitʼen; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Babine; Witsuwitʼen;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bcr
Glottolog	babi1235
ELP	Witsuwit'en

Babine–Witsuwitʼen or Nadotʼen-Wetʼsuwetʼen is an Athabaskan language spoken in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Its closest relative is Carrier. Because of this linguistic relationship together with political and cultural ties, Babine–Witsuwitʼen is often referred to as Northern Carrier or Western Carrier. Specialist opinion is, however, that it should be considered a separate, though related, language (Kari 1975, Story 1984, Kari and Hargus 1989).^[3]^[4]^[5]

A term used briefly in the 1990s is Bulkley Valley – Lakes District Language, abbreviated BVLD. Ethnologue uses the bare name Babine for the language as a whole, not just for the Babine dialect.^[6]

As its name suggests, Babine–Witsuwitʼen consists of two main dialects:

"Babine/Nedut'en" spoken by the Babine (Nadot'en) around Babine Lake, Trembleur Lake, and Takla Lake, and
"Witsuwitʼen" spoken by the Wet'suwet'en ("People of the Wet'sinkwha / Wa Dzun Kwuh River, i.e. Bulkley River", literally: "People of the blue and green River") in the Bulkley Valley, around Broman Lake, and in the vicinity of Skins Lake.

The two dialects are very similar and are distinguished primarily by the fact that in Babine but not in Witsuwitʼen the Athabaskan front velar series have become palatal affricates.

Like most languages native to British Columbia, Babine–Witsuwitʼen is an endangered language. It is spoken by a minority of the population, primarily elders. There are 161 fluent and 159 partial speakers of the Babine dialect^[7] and 131 fluent and 61 partial speakers of the Witsuwitʼen dialect.^[8] At most, a handful of children are still speaking the language.^[9]

Classification

Babine-Witsuwitʼen is classified as Northern Athabaskan, in the same linguistic subgrouping as Dakelh and Chilcotin (though the latter is far more distinctly separate from Babine-Witsuwitʼen).^[10]

Several non-specialist sources (the First Peoples' Heritage Language and Culture Council, the British Columbia Ministry of Education, and the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology) classify Witsuwitʼen as one language and Babine as a distinct language, either on its own or together with Carrier proper under the name Dakelh. Experts on the languages reject this classification. All agree that the differences between Babine and Witsuwitʼen are small and that the major split is between Babine and Witsuwitʼen on the one hand and Carrier proper on the other hand. The distinction is because speakers of Babine and of Carrier proper call themselves and their language Dakelh but that speakers of Witsuwitʼen do not.^[11]

Writing system

Nedut'en alphabet^[12]
a	c	c’	d	dl	dz	e	ee	g	gh	gw	h	i	j	k	kh	kw	kw’	k’	l
lh	m	n	o	p	p’	s	t	tl	tl’	ts	ts’	t’	u	w	wh	yh	z	’

Witsuwit’en alphabet^[12]
a	c	c’	d	dl	dz	e	ë	g	gh	gw	h	i	ï	j	k	kh	kw	kw’	k’
l	lh	m	n	o	p	p’	s	t	tl	tl’	ts	ts’	t’	u	w	wh	yh	z	’

Phonology

Consonants

Witsuwitʼen

Witsuwitʼen has 35 consonants. Aspirated and ejective labials are rarer than other consonants.^[13]

Witsuwitʼen Consonant Inventory^[13]^[14]
		Labial	Alveolar			Dorsal			Glottal
		Labial	central	lateral	sibilant	fronted	rounded	backed	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Occlusive	tenuis	p ⟨b⟩	t ⟨d⟩	tɬ ⟨dl⟩	ts ⟨dz⟩	c ⟨g⟩	kʷ ⟨gʷ⟩	q ⟨G⟩	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ ⟨p⟩	tʰ ⟨t⟩	tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩	tsʰ ⟨ts⟩	cʰ ⟨c⟩	kʷʰ ⟨kʷ⟩	qʰ ⟨q⟩
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tɬʼ	tsʼ	cʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ
Continuant	voiceless			ɬ	s	ç	xʷ	χ	h
Continuant	voiced			l	z	j ⟨y⟩	w	ʁ ⟨ɣ⟩

Babine

Babine Consonant Inventory^[4]^[15]
		Labial	Alveolar			Palatal	Palato- alveolar	Dorsal		Glottal
		Labial	central	lateral	sibilant	Palatal	Palato- alveolar	rounded	backed	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Occlusive	tenuis	p ⟨b⟩	t ⟨d⟩	tɬ ⟨dl⟩	ts ⟨dz⟩	c ⟨g⟩	(tʃ)^[a]	qʷ ⟨Gʷ⟩	q ⟨G⟩	ʔ
	aspirated		tʰ ⟨t⟩	tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩	tsʰ ⟨ts⟩	cʰ ⟨k⟩	(tʃʰ)^[a]	qʷʰ ⟨qʷ⟩	qʰ ⟨q⟩
	ejective		tʼ	tɬʼ	tsʼ	cʼ ⟨k'⟩	(tʃʼ)^[a]	qʷʼ	qʼ
Continuant	voiceless			ɬ	s	ç		χʷ	χ	h
Continuant	voiced			l	z	j ⟨y⟩		w	ʁ ⟨ɣ⟩

^ ^a ^b ^c are heard in the Lake Babine dialect, corresponding to /c, cʰ, cʼ/ in the River Babine dialect.

Vowels

Witsuwitʼen and Babine both have six underlying vowels in its inventory.^[14]^[15]

Vowels^[14]
	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Grammar

Lexical categories

Witsuwitʼen lexical categories include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and postpositions. Directional terms are considered to be a lexical group in Witsuwitʼen found throughout lexical categories.^[14]

Nouns

Witsuwitʼen nouns are only inflected for possession, and no case marking exists in Witsuwitʼen.^[14] Possessive morphology takes different forms depending on whether the referent is alienable or inalienable.

Alienable	Inalienable
cʼəni trap.bait cʼəni trap.bait 'trap bait'	s- 1SG.POSS- əɬtsen brother s- əɬtsen 1SG.POSS- brother 'my brother'

Because trap bait is an alienable entity which need not be possessed by anyone/anything, it does not include any possessive morphology but stands alone in its bare form. In contrast, brother is an inalienable entity; a brother cannot exist without someone else to be in relation to. Thus, brother requires possessive morphology, as exampled in səɬtsen 'my brother'.^[14]

Verbs

The basic lexical verb in Witsuwitʼen is the verb theme, a unit composed of two parts: a verbal root and required thematic prefixes.^[14]

Verbal morpheme order is stable throughout the Athabaskan family; thus, the template of the Witstuwitʼen verb is very similar to other Athabaskan languages.^[16] Prefixes which are furthest away from the lexical stem display more variability. The Witsuwitʼen verb consists of a lexical root and an aspectual, tense, or modal affix (most often a suffix). All Witsuwitʼen verbs carry tense and subject inflection; there is no Witsuwitʼen equivalent to the English infinitive.^[17]

Postpositions

Postpositional object marking is demonstrated in the examples below. Postpositions can stand by themselves, as in the example '3s was playing with it,' or attach to the verbal complex.^[18]

Yi-lh

with-3SG

niwilyekh.

3SG-plays

'3s was playing with it.'

Directional terms

Complex directional systems and directional terms have been described in Ahtna, Slavey, Kaska, Koyukon, Tsek'ene, and Witsuwitʼen. Directional terms are composed of a directional root, prefixes which describe distance, and suffixes which indicate motion or rest.^[14]

Syntax

Like most Athabaskan languages, basic word order in Babine-Witsuwitʼen is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), demonstrated in the example below.^[17]

Mary

dilhtsen

3SG.REFL.brother

yikʼëntsiyʼ

3SG.loves.3SG

'Mary loves her own brother.'

Grammatical relations

Babine-Witsuwitʼen uses verbal morphology to express grammatical roles. Subjects of transitive and intransitive constructions are marked in the same way and appear in identical positions within the sentence, while objects of transitive constructions may differ in position and occasionally in morphological form. Subjects are marked in different places within the verbal complex, with 1st and 2nd person subjects appearing more closely to the verb stem and 3rd person subjects and direct objects further to the left.^[19]

Two object prefixes [hiy-] and [y-]:^[18]

Hiy-ïtsʼoldeh.

'They need it.'

Ndutah

what

yiziz

3SG.is.drinking.it

'What's he drinking?'

1st and 2nd person subjects include 1SG, 2SG, and 2PL. 3rd person subjects can be expressed as unspecified (human), indefinite, or 4th person (referred to as the obviative in Algonquian languages).^[19]

Voice / Valence

Athabaskan languages like Babine-Witstuwitʼen make use of two main argument transferring morphemes known as classifiers. However, the term classifier is recognized among Athabaskanists as a misnomer; voice and valence markers are more appropriate descriptors.^[19] Each lexical entry of Witsuwitʼen verbs features a lexicalized voice/valence marker fused with the verb stem, though this element sometimes appears as zero. The classifiers [ɬ] and [d] regulate transitivity: [ɬ] increases transitivity by creating causatives and the [d] classifier lowers transitivity to create middle voice. The valence marker [l] is more complex in nature, indicating a combination of [ɬ] and [d] where a middle is built upon a causative.^[19]

Words and phrases

Witsuwitʼen	Southern Carrier	English
lhok	lhook	fish
neʼ	ʼama	mother
lhkʼiy	lhukʼi	one
nek	nankoh	two
takʼiy	takʼih	three
Hadï Soʼendzin		Hello. How are you?
Sne kal yëgh		Thank you

Source: First Voices

References

^ Babine-Witsuwitʼen language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ "Language Highlight Tables, 2016 Census - Aboriginal mother tongue, Aboriginal language spoken most often at home and Other Aboriginal language(s) spoken regularly at home for the population excluding institutional residents of Canada, provinces and territories, 2016 Census – 100% Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
^ Kari, James (1975) Babine, a New Athabaskan Linguistic Grouping, ms. Alaska Native Language Center, Fairbanks, Alaska.
^ ^a ^b Story, Gillian L. (1984) Babine and Carrier Phonology: A Historically Oriented Study. Arlington, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
^ Kari, James and Sharon Hargus (1989) Dialectology, Ethnonymy and Prehistory in the Northwest Portion of the 'Carrier' Language Area, ms. Alaska Native Language Center, Fairbanks, Alaska, and University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
^ "Babine". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
^ First People's Language Map of British Columbia Nedut'en (Babine): State of the Language
^ First People's Language Map of British Columbia Witsusit'en: State of the Language
^ The Status of the Native Languages of British Columbia Yinka Déné Language Institute 2007
^ Krauss, Michael E. and Victor Golla (1981) Northern Athapaskan Languages. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6: Subarctic, ed. by June Helm, 67–85. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
^ Poser, William J. (2011) The Carrier Language: a brief introduction. Prince George, British Columbia: College of New Caledonia Press. Page 8, footnote 15.
^ ^a ^b Hargus 2016.
^ ^a ^b Wright, Hargus & Davis (2002:45)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hargus, Sharon (2007). Witsuwitʼen Grammar: Phonetics, phonology, morphology. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. ISBN 978-0774813822.
^ ^a ^b Cook, Eung Do (1990). Consonant Classes and Vowel Qualities in Babine. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique: Canadian Linguistic Association. pp. 123–143.
^ Tuttle, Siri G. 2002. A Short Introduction to Athabaskan Morphology. Morphology in Comparison, ed. by Elke Nowak, 1–37. Technische Universität Berlin Arbeitspapiere zur Linguistik 37.
^ ^a ^b Denham, Kristin (2000). "Optional Wh-Movement in Babine-Witsuwitʼen". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 18 (2): 199–251. doi:10.1023/A:1006475026526. S2CID 170057270.
^ ^a ^b Gunlogson, Christine (2001). "Third-Person Object Prefixes in Babine Witsuwitʼen". International Journal of American Linguistics. 67 (4): 365–395. doi:10.1086/466468. S2CID 143524677.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Rice, Keren (2000). Voice and valence in the Athapaskan family. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity, ed. by R.M.W. Dixon and A.Y. Aikhenvald, 173-234. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sources

Hargus, Sharon (2016). "Sounds and writing systems of Deg Xinag, Tsek'ene and Witsuwit'en" (PDF). University of Washington. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 May 2022.

Bibliography

Hargus, Sharon (November 2011). Witsuwit'en Grammar: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology. UBC Press. ISBN 9780774841245.
Kari, James (1975). Babine, a New Athabaskan Linguistic Grouping. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Language Center.
Kari, James; Hargus, Sharon (1989). Dialectology, Ethnonymy and Prehistory in the Northwest Portion of the 'Carrier' Language Area. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Language Center.
Krauss, Michael E.; Golla, Victor (1981). "Northern Athapaskan Languages". In Helm, June (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 6: Subarctic. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 67–85.
Rice, Keren (2000). Dixon, R.M.W.; Aikhenvald, A.Y. (eds.). Voice and valence in the Athapaskan family. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 173–234. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511627750.007.
Story, Gillian L. (1984). Babine and Carrier Phonology: A Historically Oriented Study. Arlington, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 0-88312-094-1. LCCN 83-051454.
Wright, Richard; Hargus, Sharon; Davis, Katharine (2002). "On the categorization of ejectives: data from Witsuwitʼen". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 32 (1): 43–77. doi:10.1017/S0025100302000142. S2CID 145579984.

External links

First Voices: Contains Learning Resources for Witsuwitʼen^{[permanent dead link]}
Entry on First Nations Languages of British Columbia site
Family Tree of Athabaskan Languages
Status of the Native Languages of British Columbia
Map of Northwest Coast First Nations Note, however, that the Carrier-speaking region is marked incorrectly on this map and that Babine-Witsuwitʼen is not indicated. The area around Babine Lake and Takla Lake, included in the Dakelh region on the map, is actually Babine speaking. A correct map would attach the Babine Lake and Takla Lake areas to what is shown on this map as "Wetʼsuwetʼen" and label the combination "Babine-Witsuwitʼen".

[lakebabine-16] re heard in the Lake Babine dialect, corresponding to /c, cʰ, cʼ/ in the River Babine dialect.

[e18-1] Babine-Witsuwitʼen language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] "Language Highlight Tables, 2016 Census - Aboriginal mother tongue, Aboriginal language spoken most often at home and Other Aboriginal language(s) spoken regularly at home for the population excluding institutional residents of Canada, provinces and territories, 2016 Census – 100% Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2017-11-23.

[3] Kari, James (1975) Babine, a New Athabaskan Linguistic Grouping, ms. Alaska Native Language Center, Fairbanks, Alaska.

[:4-4] Story, Gillian L. (1984) Babine and Carrier Phonology: A Historically Oriented Study. Arlington, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

[5] Kari, James and Sharon Hargus (1989) Dialectology, Ethnonymy and Prehistory in the Northwest Portion of the 'Carrier' Language Area, ms. Alaska Native Language Center, Fairbanks, Alaska, and University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

[6] "Babine". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-03-13.

[7] First People's Language Map of British Columbia Nedut'en (Babine): State of the Language

[8] First People's Language Map of British Columbia Witsusit'en: State of the Language

[9] The Status of the Native Languages of British Columbia Yinka Déné Language Institute 2007

[10] Krauss, Michael E. and Victor Golla (1981) Northern Athapaskan Languages. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6: Subarctic, ed. by June Helm, 67–85. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

[11] Poser, William J. (2011) The Carrier Language: a brief introduction. Prince George, British Columbia: College of New Caledonia Press. Page 8, footnote 15.

[FOOTNOTEHargus2016-12] Hargus 2016.

[:1-13] Wright, Hargus & Davis (2002:45)

[grammar-14] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hargus, Sharon (2007). Witsuwitʼen Grammar: Phonetics, phonology, morphology. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. ISBN 978-0774813822.

[:5-15] Cook, Eung Do (1990). Consonant Classes and Vowel Qualities in Babine. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique: Canadian Linguistic Association. pp. 123–143.

[tuttle-17] Tuttle, Siri G. 2002. A Short Introduction to Athabaskan Morphology. Morphology in Comparison, ed. by Elke Nowak, 1–37. Technische Universität Berlin Arbeitspapiere zur Linguistik 37.

[:2-18] Denham, Kristin (2000). "Optional Wh-Movement in Babine-Witsuwitʼen". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 18 (2): 199–251. doi:10.1023/A:1006475026526. S2CID 170057270.

[:0-19] Gunlogson, Christine (2001). "Third-Person Object Prefixes in Babine Witsuwitʼen". International Journal of American Linguistics. 67 (4): 365–395. doi:10.1086/466468. S2CID 143524677.

[:3-20] Rice, Keren (2000). Voice and valence in the Athapaskan family. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity, ed. by R.M.W. Dixon and A.Y. Aikhenvald, 173-234. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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