Babine-Witsuwitʼen language
indigenous language of British Columbia, Canada
Babine–Witsuwitʼen or Nadotʼen-Wetʼsuwetʼen is an Athabaskan language spoken in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Its closest relative is Carrier. Because of this linguistic relationship together with political and cultural ties, Babine–Witsuwitʼen is often referred to as Northern Carrier or Western Carrier. Specialist opinion is, however, that it should be considered a separate, though related, language (Kari 1975, Story 1984, Kari and Hargus 1989).
A term used briefly in the 1990s is Bulkley Valley – Lakes District Language, abbreviated BVLD. Ethnologue uses the bare name Babine for the language as a whole, not just for the Babine dialect.
As its name suggests, Babine–Witsuwitʼen consists of two main dialects:
"Babine/Nedut'en" spoken by the Babine (Nadot'en) around Babine Lake, Trembleur Lake, and Takla Lake, and
"Witsuwitʼen" spoken by the Wet'suwet'en ("People of the Wet'sinkwha / Wa Dzun Kwuh River, i.e. Bulkley River", literally: "People of the blue and green River") in the Bulkley Valley, around Broman Lake, and in the vicinity of Skins Lake.
The two dialects are very similar and are distinguished primarily by the fact that in Babine but not in Witsuwitʼen the Athabaskan front velar series have become palatal affricates.
Like most languages native to British Columbia, Babine–Witsuwitʼen is an endangered language. It is spoken by a minority of the population, primarily elders.
“Babine-Witsuwitʼen language” enters the record as indigenous language of British Columbia, Canada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Babine-Witsuwitʼen, language and indigenous can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Babine-Witsuwitʼen language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.