Sekani language

Sekani
Sekani
Tse'khene
Native to	Canada
Region	British Columbia
Ethnicity	1,410 Sekani people (2014, FPCC)
Native speakers	35 (2021 census); 135 with knowledge (2021)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Sekani; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin script; Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sek
Glottolog	seka1250
ELP	Tse'khene (Sekani)
	Sekani is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Sekani or Tse’khene is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by 135 of the Sekani people of north-central British Columbia, Canada. Most of them are only semispeakers, and it is considered critically endangered.^[3]

Phonology

Consonants

Sekani has 33 consonants:

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

^ Sekani, like other Athabaskan languages, does not contrast fricatives with approximants.

Vowels

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

Tone

Sekani has two tones: low and high. High tone is the more common tone. Syllables phonologically marked for tone are low. For example, tsun means 'dirt', while tsùn means 'meat'.^[4]

Nasalization

Nasalization of vowels is phonemic. The root *ghèl means 'scrape', while the root *ghę̀l means 'roll'.^[4] Nasal vowels also contrast with vowels followed by /n/.

Orthography

The orthography of the Kwadcha Tsek'ene dictionary uses the following letters.^[5]^[6]

Kwadacha Tsek'ene alphabet
Letter	IPA
Letter	Syll. init.	Syll. final
’	ʔ
a	ɑ
à	ɑ˩
ą	ɑ̃
ą̀	ɑ̃˩
b	p	-
ch	t͡ʃʰ	-
ch’	t͡ʃ’	-
d	d	-
dl	tɬ	-
dz	ts	-
e	e
ę	ẽ
è	e˩
ę̀	ẽ˩
g	k	-
gw	kʷ	-
h	h
i	ɪ	-
į	ɪ̃	-
ì	ɪ˩	-
į̀	ɪ̃˩	-
j	tʃ	-
ii	i
įį	ĩ
ìì	i˩
į̀į̀	ĩ˩
k	kʰ	k
k’	k’	-
kh	x
gh	ɣ
kw	kʷ	-
kw’	kʷ’	-
l	l
lh	ɬ
m	m
n	n
o	o
ǫ	õ
ò	o˩
ǫ̀	õ˩
oo	u
ǫǫ	ũ
òò	u˩
ǫ̀ǫ̀	ũ˩
p	pʰ	p
s	s
z	z
sh	ʃ
t	tʰ	t
t’	t’	-
tl	tɬ
tl’	tɬ’	-
ts	tsʰ	ts
ts’	ts’	-
u	ɐ	-
ų	ɐ̃	-
ù	ɐ˩	-
ų̀	ɐ̃˩	-
w	w
yh	ç	-
y	j
zh	ʒ	-

In addition, ⟨wu⟩ represents /ʊ/, ⟨iii⟩ represents /iː/, ⟨ee⟩ represents /eː/, and ⟨aa⟩ represents /ɑː/.

Vocabulary

These words are from the FirstVoices dictionary for Kwadacha Tsek'ene dialect.^[5]

Kwadacha Tsek'ene	English
dune	man, person
tlįį	dog
wudzįįh	caribou
yus	snow
chǫ	rain
k’wus	cloud
kwùn	fire (n)
’įįbèh	summer
too	water
mun	lake
nun	land
tselh	axe
ʼukèʼ	foot
’àtse	my grandfather
’àtsǫǫ	my grandmother
lhìghè’	one
lhèkwudut’e	two
tadut’e	three
dįįdut’e	four
ǫ	yes
Tlįį duchę̀’ ’ehdasde	January
Dahyusè’ nùkehde wìlę	February
’Iihts’ii nùtsudawit’į̀į̀h	March
Nùts’iide	March
Dasè’	April
’Ut’ǫ̀’ kùlhaghnukehde wìlę	May
’Ut’ǫ̀’ kùnuyehde	May
Jìje dinììdulh	July
Yhììh nunutsunde wìlę	August
Yhììh ukudeh’àsde	September
’Udììtl’ǫh ’uwit’į̀į̀h	October
Yus ’ut’į̀į̀h	November
Khuye ’uwììjàh	December

Notes

^ Sekani language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (29 March 2023). "Indigenous languages in Canada, 2021". www150.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 25 March 2025.
^ "Did you know Tse'khene (Sekani) is critically endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 28 March 2025.
^ ^a ^b Hargus, Sharon (21 April 2000). "Ft. Ware (Kwadacha) Sekani Dictionary". Alaska Native Language Archive. University of Alaska Fairbanks. CN990H2000.
^ ^a ^b "Kwadacha Tsek'ene alphabet". FirstVoices. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
^ Hargus, Sharon (26 September 2016). "Sounds and writing systems of Deg Xinag, Tsek'ene and Witsuwit'en" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2022.

Bibliography

Hargus, Sharon (1988). The Lexical Phonology of Sekani. Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-5187-4.
- Original dissertation: Hargus, Sharon Louise (1985). The Lexical Phonology of Sekani (PhD dissertation). Los Angeles: University of California.
Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521298759.

Articles

Hargus, Sharon (26 June 2010). Effects on consonant duration in Fort Ware Tsek'ene (PDF). Athabaskan/Dene Languages Conference. Eugene, OR. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016.
- "References" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016.
Hargus, Sharon (2009). Causatives and transitionals in Kwadacha Tsek'ene (PDF). Athabaskan Languages Conference. Berkeley, CA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
Hargus, Sharon (10 July 2010). Phonetic vs. phonological rounding in Athabaskan languages (PDF). LabPhon 12. Albuquerque, NM.
- References: "References" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
- Journal article: Hargus, Sharon (2012). "Deg Xinag Rounding Assimilation: A case study in phonologization". Journal of Laboratory Phonology. 3 (1): 163–193. doi:10.1515/lp-2012-0010.

External links

[4] Sekani, like other Athabaskan languages, does not contrast fricatives with approximants.

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

[2] Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (29 March 2023). "Indigenous languages in Canada, 2021". www150.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 25 March 2025.

[3] "Did you know Tse'khene (Sekani) is critically endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 28 March 2025.

[FortWare-5] Hargus, Sharon (21 April 2000). "Ft. Ware (Kwadacha) Sekani Dictionary". Alaska Native Language Archive. University of Alaska Fairbanks. CN990H2000.

[FirstVoices-6] "Kwadacha Tsek'ene alphabet". FirstVoices. Retrieved 13 January 2024.

[DegXinag-7] Hargus, Sharon (26 September 2016). "Sounds and writing systems of Deg Xinag, Tsek'ene and Witsuwit'en" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2022.

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