Dene — the languages of Denendeh and the Mackenzie valley (the language doorway)
Status: Researched draft — cultural review pending
How to read this entry: this is the doorway page for the Dene languages in this encyclopedia. Documented fact = published record cited in Sources. The Collection's standing = what the Sacred Name Collection's recovery shelf actually holds, stated line by line on the page's face — held, opening, or not held — restated per line from the audit of 2026-10-30. The doorway's honest headline: the Dene shelf is not one shelf — two lines stand recovered, four stand not held, and the page says so line by line rather than implying a uniform holding. The Dene nations' own governments and programmes lead the living languages; this page names them and copies nothing from them.
"Dene" names a family of peoples and languages across the Mackenzie valley and the northern plains — Dëne Sųłıné, Dene Zhatıé, Tłı̨chǫ, Dene Kǝdǝ́, Dene Tha' and Gwich'in among them. Each line below carries its own standing; no line borrows another's.
The lines, severally — the Collection's standing on each
- Dëne Sųłıné — RECOVERED (opening extent). The Kirkby line: the syllabic Gospels printing of 1881 (the New Testament printing in Kirkby's syllabics) — Matthew chapter 1 complete, transcribed glyph by glyph under Kirkby's printed syllabarium; and Le Goff's Katolik deneya 'tiye dittlisse (1890) — front matter and the first ten prayers. Dëne Sųłıné carries the largest speaker base of the Dene lines. Register discipline: Le Goff's book prints its language as "montagnaise"; it is Dëne Sųłıné, and is never shelved as Innu.
- Dene Zhatıé — RECOVERED. Bompas's "Slave" Gospels (1883, Roman orthography) — Matthew complete, 28 chapters, with its copy-specific uncertainties standing as printed. The remaining Gospels of that printing, and Reeve's syllabic New Testament line behind them, stand as the continuation road.
- Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì — NOT HELD. No historical printed scripture portion in Tłı̨chǫ was found; the Tłı̨chǫ New Testament (2003) is a modern copyright work — linked, never copied. Some 2,000 speakers; the Tłı̨chǫ Government leads the language.
- Dene Kǝdǝ́ (North Slavey / Sahtú) — NOT HELD. The nineteenth-century "Slave" corpus touches the line's Hare variety — that is the corpus's caveat, not a Kǝdǝ́ recovery. Petitot's 1876 dictionary stands as a witness to the region's languages, not a scripture recovery.
- Dene Tha' — NOT HELD. No historical printed scripture portion in Dene Tha' was found; the 1955 Hay Lakes catechism is neither scripture nor public domain and is not a recovery candidate.
- Gwich'in (Dinjii Zhuh Ginjik) — NOT HELD. The Gwich'in New Testament (2011) is a modern copyright work — link only. The line stands under the Gwich'in nation's own authority.
Sources
- Canada Nations Language Audit (this programme, 2026-10-30), §7 — the per-line restatement, speaker lines, programme record.
- Indigenous Recovery Register (this programme) — Kirkby, Le Goff and Bompas held extents; the Reeve continuation line.
Weakest-sourced points in this entry (flagged): (1) "Slave" in the nineteenth-century printings is a period label covering more than one modern line; the per-line attributions above follow the audit's severally-stated reading, and the corpus's own caveat stands on the Dene Kǝdǝ́ line. (2) Speaker figures stand at the audit's summary depth.