The Northwest Territories recognizes 11 official languages, and out of these 11, nine are Indigenous. These nine Indigenous languages fall into three main language families:
Dene
- Gwich’in
- North Slavey
- South Slavey
- Tlicho
- Chipewyan (Denesuline)
Inuit
- Inuvialuktun
- Inuktitut
- Inuinnaqtun
Cree
The other two official languages are French and English.
Learning a language is the best way to learn the culture and way of life of any specific community. This is because the names of places and actions are embedded with living stories that have been passed down through many generations.
Below is a list of resources that might help you learn some of these languages! The list below is by no means comprehensive, but is meant to be a starting point in your language learning journey. There is a mix of multimedia, PDF and social media group resources below. The NT-NEIHR also posts regular “word of the weeks”, and you can visit the glossary here!
Dene
General information about main Dene languages: http://www.sas.rochester.edu/lin/DeneSpeechAtlas/ (this resources does not include Gwich’in)
- Gwich’in:
- Speak Gwich’in to Me (FB Page) https://www.facebook.com/groups/Speakgwichintome/
- Online lessons (offered for free through the University of Alaska Fairbanks) https://gwichin.community.uaf.edu/syllabus/
- North Slavey:
- Online dictionary (PDF) https://deline.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sahtuotine-Gokede.pdf
- South Slavey:
- Online dictionary (PDF) http://www.ssdec.nt.ca/Dictionary/
- Interactive online kids dictionary http://gudeh.com/#
- Tlicho (Dogrib)
- Speak Tlicho to Me (FB Page) https://www.facebook.com/SpeakTlichoToMe/
- Online dictionary (with some audio) http://oryx.comp.uvic.ca/default.aspx
- Online dictionary (PDF) https://tlicho.ca/sites/default/files/A_Dogrib_Dictionary.pdf
- Chipewyan (Denesuline)
- Online dictionary (audio, phrases, stories) https://www.firstvoices.com/explore/FV/sections/Data/Athabascan/Dene/Dene/learn
- Dene Yati Podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyrzUQxwzOtJTjsdkF2Xbnw/about
Inuit
- Inuvialuktun
- Online dictionary (PDF) http://en.copian.ca/library/learning/nac/nac_dictionary/nac_dictionary.pdf
- Bank of online resources, divided by dialects https://inuvialuitdigitallibrary.ca/languages
- Inuktitut
- Soundcloud sound bites (simple phrases) https://soundcloud.com/user-623280927/tracks
- Inuinnaqtun
- Let’s Speak Inuinnaqtun! (online resource bank) https://www.inuinnaqtun.ca/initiatives
- Online grammar dictionary (no audio) https://uqausiit.ca/
- Online lessons & practice dialogues https://tusaalanga.ca/
Cree
- Online activities and songs http://learncree.ca/
There are also a number of IOS and Android apps that are now available for learning Indigeous languages; however, they were not included in this list.