Overview

The Importance of Language

The Northwest Territories recognizes 11 official languages, the only jurisdiction in Canada with such an evolved official languages policy. According to the 2001 Census, about 20% of the NWT population retain aboriginal languages as their mother tongues, while 44% total can understand aboriginal languages.

While these numbers are declining as with indigenous languages throughout the world, the retention, promotion, and empowerment of indigenous languages and dialects has been regularly highlighted as vital to protecting the knowledge and “promoting and supporting the social, spiritual, cultural, physical and economic wellbeing” of aboriginal peoples (Arctic Indigenous Languages Symposium, Tromsø, Norway, 2008).

In the pages below, we have compiled various resources to assist researchers with their communication needs in community-based research.

• Information Tables
  Tables on languages spoken in NWT communities, Dene place names and their html equivalents
• Orthography
  Typefaces used in aboriginal language transcription and some the complications arising from legacy fonts
• Pronunciation Guide
  A basic pronunciation guide for specialized Dene characters
• Resources
  A compilation of downloads, organizational links, and publications