The Sekani language or Tse’khene is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Sekani people of north-central British Columbia, Canada.

Phonology

Consonants

Sekani has 33 consonants:

Vowels

Tone

Sekani has two tones: low and high. High tone is the more common tone. Syllables phonologically marked for tone are low. For example, tsun means dirt, while tsùn means meat.

Nasalization

Nasalization of vowels is phonemic. The root *ghèl means scrape, while the root *ghę̀l means roll. Nasal vowels also contrast with vowels followed by.

Orthography

The orthography of the Kwadcha Tsek'ene dictionary uses the following letters. In addition, ⟨wu⟩ represents, ⟨iii⟩ represents , ⟨ee⟩ represents , and ⟨aa⟩ represents.

Sample words

These words are from the FirstVoices dictionary for Kwadacha Tsek'ene dialect.

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