Consonant Classes and Vowel Qualities in Babine

Abstract

Babine, which has also been known as Northern Carrier, has two major dialects, Lake Babine (LB) spoken in Babine Lake and River Babine (RB) spoken in Bulkley River in northwestern British Columbia. The speakers of the latter in Moricetown and Hagwilgate prefer to call their language [wətsowət’en]. The recognition of Babine as a language distinct from Carrier is based on the work of Hildebrandt and Story (1974), Kari (1975), and Story (1984). In claiming Babine as a distinct language, rather than a Carrier dialect, Story (1984:1) cites “the Babine vowel shift”. She presents an extensive discussion of the historical process of vowel shift conditioned by two categories of syllable-initial consonants, which she calls F(ortis)-Mutation and L(enis)-Mutation.