North
Slavey is the language of the Sahtu Region which includes
the traditional communities of Colville Lake, Fort Good
Hope, Tulita and Deline. A 1992 federal language report
indicated that over half the Sahtu region’s population
was more fluent in North Slavey than in English, but
over the years there has been a steady decline in North
Slavey language use over three generations. While 100%
of the population over 45 years were fluent in the language
only 50% of the 25-44 year old age group were fluent
and only 10 % under 25 were fluent. Even with this decline
Deline maintains the strongest connection to the North
Slavey language in the Sahtu. |