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Sekani language
Athabaskan language of British Columbia, Canada From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Sekani language 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]
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Phonology
Consonants
Sekani has 33 consonants:
- Sekani, like other Athabaskan languages, does not contrast fricatives with approximants.
Vowels
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/.
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Orthography
The orthography of the Kwadcha Tsek'ene dictionary uses the following letters.[5][6]
In addition, ⟨wu⟩ represents /ʊ/, ⟨iii⟩ represents /iː/, ⟨ee⟩ represents /eː/, and ⟨aa⟩ represents /ɑː/.
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Vocabulary
These words are from the FirstVoices dictionary for Kwadacha Tsek'ene dialect.[5]
Notes
Bibliography
External links
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