Talk:Dakelh

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View comments (edit) Well-written, a bit dry. May need revision/editing (?) but looks good. A map would probably be useful because of the complexity of hte subgroups and their very geographic nature. Skookum1 - 6 May 06

I've changed the bit about the pronounciation of Dakelh so that it is (a) in IPA and (b) correct. I don't know where the idea came from that Dakelh begins with a /k/. It doesn't. It begins with a voiceless lenis unaspirated alveolar stop, which to English speakers sounds like a /d/. (As to my authority for this, I am a professional linguist who has studied Carrier since 1992 and speak the language (with less than native fluency, of course)).

It's possible that there may be controversy over the use of the terms "band" and "First Nation". What I've done is to use "First Nation" in the names of bands if they use it themselves, but to use only "band" as the name of the unit. The reason is simple: in Canada "band" is a well-defined technical term, the unit of Indian government under the Indian Act. "First Nation" appears in the names of some bands, but it does not have the meaning of "band" in and of itself. It is not meaningful to say "Under the Indian Act, a First Nation is governed by a chief and a minimum of two councillors", whereas this is true of a "band". On the other hand, it is common to refer to things like "the Carrier First Nation". This is a reference to an ethnic group, not a political unit or (as usually used) even a linguistic unit.

One small point. I changed "an indigenous..." to "the indigenous..." because, in that particular area, Carrier people are the unique indigenous group. There is overlap in some border areas, but it is not an area in which multiple indigenous peoples are interspersed. Bill 16:24, 10 October 2005 (UTC)