MultiTree:

Name: Babine Type: Language Alternate Names: Northern Carrier; Babine-Witsuwit'en; Witsuwit'en; Babine Carrier Spoken in: Canada Number of speakers: 500 (1997 S. Hargus). Canada Census does not separate Babine [bcr], Central Carrier[crx], and Southern Carrier L1 speakers in Canada 20,090 (1998 Statistics Canada). Ethnic population: 2,200 (1982 SIL and 1997 S. Hargus) (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 660 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 500 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: bcr Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (Eyak-Athabaskan, Na-Dene, Dene-Yeniseian) Parent Subgroup: Babine-Carrier (babi) Brief Description: Babine (or Bulkley Valley/Lakes District Language) is the Athabaskan language spoken on Bulkley River and in the Lake Babine area of central British Columbia, to the north and west of the Carrier dialect complex. Although there is a tradition of grouping Babine with Carrier (it has sometimes been referred to as 'Northern Carrier'), there is a sharp linguistic and cultural boundary between the two speech communities. Babine has two clearly differentiated dialects. The western dialect (usually called Wetsuwet'en) includes the Bulkley River communities (Hagwilget, Moricetown, Smithers, Houston, and Broman Lake) and the Nee-Tahi-Buhn and Skin Tayi bands at Burns Lake. It has about 100 fluent speakers, none of them children. An additional 100 or more are passive speakers, including a few children. Although Wetsuwet'en has been offered for credit by the University of Northern British Columbia since 1996 and is taught in local schools in Moricetown and Smithers, there is little indigenous literacy. The eastern dialect ('Babine proper') includes the Lake Babine and Takla Lake communities as well as former residents from Lake Babine who have settled in Burns Lake. It has up to 200 speakers of all degrees of fluency out of a total population of 250. However, there are few speakers under 25, though some children have a passive knowledge none are active speakers." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 11

Endangerment Status

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UNESCO Status: Severely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Vulnerable