This manual contains a number of useful tools for language revitalization, including a historical assessment of language shift in Canada and a language vitality chart. Regarding Dene Language, some useful facts and statistics are expressed in the section on the status of Aboriginal Languages in the Northwest Territories:

• The text lists the 1996 home-language to mother-tongue ratio for North Slavey as 59%. While it has 1986 data for the other official languages, it adds that North Slavey data “has only recently been gathered through the Canada census…. The results of the Census data from 1991 and 1996 are inconclusive with respect to language shift.” (20)
• A 1992 Language Report interviewed 160 people in Délı̨nę, Tulı́t’a, and Fort Good Hope, to determine that 63% of respondents learned North Slavey as a first language, 54% was their most fluent language, and 45% use it most frequently at home (20).

Access this Resource:

This resource is available on the NWT Literacy Council website.

Crosscurrent Associates. Languages of the Land: A Resource Manual for Aboriginal Language Activists. Yellowknife: NWT Literacy Council, 1999.