Tl’azt’en Bughuni

The Central Carrier belong to a very large group of speakers known as the Athapaskan language family. Athapaskan languages are spoken in: Alaska, Alberta, Washington State, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, to mention a few places. The Central Carrier includes Tl’azt’en, Binche, Dzitl’ainli, Yekooche and Nak’azdli.

The Carrier people refer to themselves and their language as Dakelh. The word Dakelh means “we travel by water”.

Our language program is based on the Carrier Linguistic Committee writing system, which is based on the Roman alphabet, using letters and a combination of letters as in English. The central Carrier alphabet consists of forty-five letters and a combination of letters.

The Dakelh language is one of the world’s most difficult languages to learn. It is a very complex language, according to Father Morice’s explanation:

“Take, for instance, the word put. This verb does not have an exact synonym in Carrier, because generalities and abstraction are not part of its make-up. One must be precise, to say what you put, how you put it and under which conditions. In each case the verb will change. Thus the verb changes if the object or complement is singular or plural, round, long, heavy, soft like a cloth, liquid or semi-liquid, granular, solid, full or empty, open or closed, of feathers, hay, moss, a rock, etc. Moreover, a new verb is needed if the action is expressed for the first or second time, if you make it in anger, in fear, secretly or wrongly, usually or rarely, to deceive, etc. A new verb still if you put over or under, beside or far away, end to end….”[Souvenirs: 93-94]