Gwichʼin language

The Gwichʼin language (Dinju Zhuh Kʼyuu) belongs to the Athabaskan language family and is spoken by the Gwich'in First Nation (Canada) / Alaska Native People (United States). It is also known in older or dialect-specific publications as Kutchin, Takudh, Tukudh, or Loucheux. Gwich'in is spoken primarily in the towns of Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson (aka Teetł'it Zheh), and Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River), all in the Northwest Territories and Old Crow in Yukon of Canada. In Alaska of the United States, Gwichʼin is spoken in Beaver, Circle, Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Birch Creek, Arctic Village, Eagle, and Venetie.

Gwichʼin
Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	Canada (Northwest Territories, Yukon), United States (Alaska)
Ethnicity	3,000 Gwichʼin people (2007)
Native speakers	ca. 560 (2007–2016)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Gwichʼin
Dialects	Western Eastern
Writing system	Latin (Northern Athabaskan alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Canada (Northwest Territories) United States(Alaska)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	gwi
ISO 639-3	gwi
Glottolog	gwic1235
ELP	Gwich'in
Gwich'in is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

People	Dinjii Zhuu Gwichʼin
Language	Dinju Zhuh Kʼyuu
Country	Gwichʼin Nành, Denendeh ᑌᓀᐣᑌᐧ

Allan Hayton reciting the story "Tǫǫ Oozhrii Zhìt Tsyaa Tsal Dhidii" (Boy in the Moon) in Gwich'in.

A sign in the Fort McPherson identifies the city by its original Gwichʼin name, Teetł'it Zheh

The ejective affricate in the name Gwichʼin 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 ʼ MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE.

Current status

According to the UNESCO Interactive 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. Gwichʼin speakers have been shifting from their heritage language to English as the majority language of both the US and Canada.

Dialects

There are two main varieties of Gwichʼin, Eastern and Western, which are delineated roughly at the Canada–US border. 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 of Old Crow in the northern Yukon speak a similar dialect to those bands living in Venetie and Arctic Village, Alaska. Kâachik and Tâachik dialects are spoken in Johnson Creek village.

Language preservation and documentation

In 1988, the NWT 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.

The Gwich'in language is taught regularly at the Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow, Yukon.

Projects are underway to further document the language from a linguistic 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 the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy (Mishler and Frank 2020).

Residential schools and language decline

Assimilation efforts through residential schools played a factor in creating a cultural disruption and a language shift. One of the goals of residential schools was to wipe out indigenous culture and replace it with the European culture, seen as more conducive to “civilized” society. In the process, indigenous children were taken 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 majored cultural disruption also among the Gwich’in.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of Gwichʼin are shown in IPA notation below, with orthographic symbols in brackets:

		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⟩

Vowels

Gwich’in has six phonemic vowel qualities /i e a o u/ which contrast in duration, 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⟩

Allophonic variation

Short vowels show different vowel qualities from their long counterparts

• /i/ occurs as [ɪ]
• /e/ occurs as [ɛ]
• /a/ occurs as [ə]
• /o/ occurs as [ɔ]
• /u/ occurs as [ʊ]

Tone and nasality

• Nasal vowels are marked with an ogonek, e.g. ‹ą į ǫǫ› for /ə̃́ ɪ̃́ ṍː/, respectively.
• Low tone is marked with a grave accent, e.g. [à], whereas high tones are never marked.

Syllable structure

Gwichʼin has moderate complexity of syllable 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 consonants in Gwichʼin syllables

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”

Written Gwichʼin

The missionary Robert McDonald first started working on the written representation of Van Tat and Dagoo dialects Gwichʼin. He also produced a Bible and a hymn 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 as northern Slavey. 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 the Yukon 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.

Grammar

Verb configuration

A verb in Gwich’in contains smaller word parts that come together to make a verb. A verb can be composed by using a stem, which is then accompanied by smaller word parts, i.e. prefixes. A prefix gives off a lot of information. It informs an individual about whether the word is in the past or present tense. A prefix can also inform the individual about the number of people participating. The stem can be found at the end of the word and the prefix follows right behind the stem when reading a verb read from the right to left, so full understanding is obtained.

In popular culture

In the PBS Kids television show Molly 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. Molly shares her Gwich'in background with the show's creative producer, Princess Daazhraii Johnson.

Further reading

• Firth, William G., et al. Gwìndòo Nànhʼ Kak Geenjit Gwichʼin Ginjik = More Gwichʼin Words About the Land. Inuvik, N.W.T.: Gwichʼin Renewable Resource Board, 2001.
• Gwichʼin Renewable Resource Board. Nànhʼ Kak Geenjit Gwichʼin Ginjik = Gwichʼin Words About the Land. Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada: Gwichʼin Renewable Resource Board, 1997.
• McDonald. A Grammar of the Tukudh Language. Yellowknife, N.W.T.: Curriculum Division, Dept. of Education, Government of the Northwest Territories, 1972.
• Mishler, Craig, ed. Neerihiinjìk: We Traveled From Place to Place: The Gwich’in Stories of Johnny and Sarah Frank. 2nd ed. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 2001.
• Mishler, Craig and Kenneth Frank, eds. Dinjii Vadzaih Dhidlit: The Man Who Became a Caribou. 2nd ed. Hanover, N.H.: IPI Press, 2020.
• Montgomery, Jane. Gwichʼin Language Lessons Old Crow Dialect. Whitehorse: Yukon Native Language Centre, 1994.
• Northwest Territories. Gwichʼin Legal Terminology. [Yellowknife, N.W.T.]: Dept. of Justice, Govt. of the Northwest Territories, 1993.
• Norwegian-Sawyer, Terry. Gwichʼin Language Lessons Gwichyàh Gwichʼin Dialect (Tsiigèhchik–Arctic Red River). Whitehorse: Yukon Native Language Centre, 1994.
• Peter, Katherine, and Mary L. Pope. Dinjii Zhuu Gwandak = Gwichʼin Stories. [Anchorage]: Alaska State-Operated Schools, Bilingual Programs, 1974.
• Peter, Katherine. A Book of Gwichʼin Athabaskan Poems. College, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, Center for Northern Educational Research, University of Alaska, 1974.
• Scollon, Ronald. A Sketch of Kutchin Phonology. University of Hawaii, 1975.
• Yukon Native Language Centre. Gwichʼin Listening Exercises Teetlʼit Gwichʼin dialect. Whitehorse: Yukon Native Language Centre, Yukon College, 2003. ISBN 1-55242-167-8

External links

• Gwich’in Archived: Yukon Native Language Centre: Gwichʼin
• Alaska Native Language Center: Gwichʼin
• Ettunetle Tutthug Enjit Gichinchik Portions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in Gwichʼin
• Gwich'in Language Dictionary, 2003, 4th Edition, prepared by the Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute and the Gwich'in Language Centre, Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories (Canada); covers two dialects: Teetl'it Gwich'in (Fort McPherson) and Gwichyah Gwich'in (Tsiigehtchic)
• Gwich'in Junior Dictionary/Dinjii zhuh ginjik nagwan tr'iłtsąįį, 1979, compiled by Katherine Peter, Alaska Native Language Center