Sekani language

Sekani
Tse'khene
Native to Canada
Region British Columbia
Ethnicity 1,410 Sekani people (2014, FPCC)[1]
Native speakers
 30 (2014, FPCC)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 sek
Glottolog seka1250[2]

The Sekani language is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Sekani people of north-central British Columbia, Canada.

Sounds

Consonants

Sekani has 33 consonants:

  Bilabial Alveolar Post-
Alveolar		 Velar Glottal
central lateral plain labial
Stop unaspirated p t     k kʷ  
aspirated (pʰ) tʰ     kʰ kʷʰ  
ejective   tʼ     kʼ kʼʷ ʔ
Affricate unaspirated   ts tɬ tʃ      
aspirated   tsʰ tɬʰ tʃʰ      
ejective   tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ      
Nasal   m n          
Fricative-
Approximant*		 voiceless   s ɬ ç x xʷ h
voiced   z ɬ j ɣ w  

Vowels

  Front Central Back
High i   u
Mid e ə o
Low   a  

Tone

Sekani has two tones, low and high. High is the default. That is, syllables normally have high tone. Syllables phonologically marked for tone are low.

Nasalization

Nasalization of vowels is contrastive.

Ethnologue/ISO 639-3 Code

SEK

Examples [3]

In the practical writing system used here, the letter "u" represents the mid-central vowel and "oo" represents the high back rounded vowel. Glottal stop is represented an apostrophe.

Kwadacha Tsek'ene dialect

Notes

  1. 1 2 Sekani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Sekani". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ FirstVoices: Kwadacha Tsek'ene Community Portal

Bibliography

Articles


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