Gwich’in Language

Gwich’in is known by many names: Kutchin, Loucheux, Gens du Large, Dinjii Zhuh, and Tukudh. Dinjii Zhuh is the traditional word for the entire Gwich’in nation, while the term Gwich’in itself means “the inhabitant of...”, and usually follows a more specific territorial descriptive.

Originally, there were nine distinct groups, each with its own dialect. From west to east, these are: Dihaii Gwich’in (merged with Neets’ąįį), Neets’ąįį Gwich’in, Dendoo Gwich’in (wiped out by epidemic), Gwichaa Gwich’in, Draanjik Gwich’in, Vuntut Gwich’in, Dagudh Gwich’in (joined Vuntut and Teetł’it after an epidemic), Teetł’it Gwich’in, and Gwichya Gwich’in. The term Ehdii Tat Gwich’in refers to the people of Aklavik and Inuvik; the language there is a mixed dialect of Teetł’it and Gwichya Gwich’in.

Today, there are two main orthographies, one in use in Alaska, the other in Canada. These different writing systems reflect a distinct dialect-group boundary. An earlier orthography was developed in the 1870s by the missionary McDonald for the Dagudh (Tukudh) dialect.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.

ISO 639-3 language code: gwi

Gwich’in Communities

Arctic Village, Venetie (Neets’ąįį Gwich’in)

Fort Yukon, Circle, Beaver (Gwichaa Gwich’in)

Chalkyitsik (Draanjik Gwich’in)

Old Crow (Vuntut Gwich’in)

Fort McPherson (Teetł’it Gwich’in)

Tsiigehtchic (Gwichya Gwich’in)

Inuvik, Aklavik (Ehdii Tat Gwich’in)

The Canadian Census counts 570 Gwichin speakers in 2006, up from from 505 in 2001. According to Howe and Cook as well as Krauss, there are 700 speakers of the language in both countries.

Canadian Dialects: Consonants

	bilabial	inter-dental	alveolar	alveolar affricate	lateral	retroflex	fortis palato-alveolar	palato-alveolar	palatal	velar	velar rounded	glottal
voiceless stop	b	ddh	d	dz	dl	dr	dzh	j		g	gw	’
aspirated stop		tth	t	ts	tł	tr	tsh	ch		k	kw
ejective stop		tth’	t’	ts’	tł’	tr’	tsh’	ch’		k’	k’w
voiced fricative	v	dh		z		zr	ssh	sh		kh	khw
voiceless fricative		th		s	ł	sr	zzh	zh		gh	ghw	h
nasal	m		n							ng
voiceless nasal			nh
nasalised voiced stop			nd					nj				n’
resonant					l	r			y

Canadian Dialects: Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i – ii		u – uu
mid	e – ee		o – oo
low		a – aa

Notes

Nasal vowels are indicated by an ogonek accent ą
Low tone is always shown with a grave accent à, high tone is unmarked. For low tone long vowels, only the first vowel is accented.
/ssh/ and /zzh/ appear to be only used in Yukon.

Alaska Dialects: Consonants

	bilabial	inter-dental	alveolar	alveolar affricate	lateral	retroflex	palato-alveolar	palatal	velar	velar rounded	glottal
voiceless stop	b	ddh	d	dz	dl	dr	j		g	gw	’
aspirated stop		tth	t	ts	tl	tr	ch		k	kw
ejective stop		tth’	t’	ts’	tl’	tr’	ch’		k’
voiced fricative	v	dh		z		zhr	sh		kh
voiceless fricative		th		s	ł	shr	zh		gh	ghw	h
nasal	m		n
voiceless nasal			nh
nasalised voiced stop			nd				nj
resonant					l	r		y
voiceless resonant						rh

Alaska Dialects: Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i – ii		u – uu
mid	e – ee		o – oo
low		a – aa

Notes

Nasal vowels are indicated by an ogonek accent ą
Low tone is optionally shown with a grave accent à, high tone is always unmarked. Circumflexes (for falling tone) and háčeks (for rising tones) may also occur.
Some writers may write ‹tl› and ‹tl’› with the slash-l: ‹tł› ‹tł’›.
In the Alaskan orthography, a /y/ which follows a consonant is considered to be part of that consonant, and is written before an apostrophe.

E.g. neeshreegwąąhchy’a’ instead of neeshreegwąąhch’ya’

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Last Modified: 17-Apr-2011

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