Slavey (/ˈsleɪvi/;  also Slave, Slavé) is a group of Athabaskan languages and a dialect continuum spoken amongst the Dene peoples of Canada in the Northwest Territories – or central Denendeh – where it also has official status. The languages are primarily written using a modified Latin script, with some using Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. In their own languages, these languages are referred to as: Sahtúgot’įné Yatı̨́ (spoken by the Sahtu Dene), K’ashógot’įne Goxedǝ́ (the Hare Dene dialect) and Shíhgot’įne Yatı̨́ (the Mountain dialect) in the North, and Dené Dháh (primarily by the Dene Tha' in Alberta), Dene Yatıé or Dene Zhatıé in the South.
 North Slavey is spoken by the Sahtu (North Slavey) people in the Mackenzie District along the middle Mackenzie River from Tulita (Fort Norman) north, around Great Bear Lake, and in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Canadian territory of Northwest Territories. The dialect has around 800 speakers.
 Northern Slavey is an amalgamation of three separate dialects: 
 South Slavey (ᑌᓀ ᒐ Dené Dháh, Dene Yatıé or Dene Zhatıé) is spoken by the Slavey people, who were also known as Dehghaot'ine, Deh Cho, Etchareottine - "People Dwelling in the Shelter", in the region of Great Slave Lake, upper Mackenzie River (Deh Cho - "Big River") and its drainage, in the District of Mackenzie, northeast Alberta, and northwest British Columbia.
 Some communities are bilingual, with the children learning Slavey at home and English when they enter school. Still other communities are monolingual in Slavey  The dialect has around 1000 speakers.
 Alternative names: Slavi, Slave, Dené, Mackenzian
 The division of Slavey dialects is based largely on the way each one pronounces the old Proto-Athapaskan sounds *dz *ts *ts’ *s and *z.
 The consonant inventories in the dialects of Slavey differ considerably. The table above lists the 30 consonants common to most or all varieties. Hare lacks aspirated affricates (on red background), which have lenited into fricatives, whereas Mountain lacks /w/ (on blue). In addition, for some speakers of Hare, an alveolar flap /ɾ/ has developed into a separate phoneme. Prenasalized stops /ᵐb, ⁿd/ may appear in Slavey proper.
 The most pronounced difference is however the realization of a series of consonants that varies greatly in their place of articulation:
 In Slavey proper, these are dental affricates and fricatives; comparative Athabaskan work reveals this to be the oldest sound value. Mountain has labials, with the voiceless stop coinciding with pre-existing /p/. Bearlake has labialized velars, but has lenited the voiced fricative to coincide with pre-existing /w/. The most complicated situation is found in Hare, where the plain stop is a labialized velar, the ejective member is replaced by a /ʔw/ sequence, the aspirated affricate has turned into a fricative /f/, and both the voiceless and voiced fricatives have been lenited to /w/.
 The following phonological and phonetic statements apply to all four dialects of Slavey.
 Slavey has two tones:
 In Slavey orthography, high tone is marked with an acute accent, and low tone is unmarked.
 Tones are both lexical and grammatical.
 Lexical: /ɡáh/ 'along' vs. /ɡàh/ 'rabbit'
 Slavey morphemes have underlying syllable structures in the stems: CV, CVC, CVnC, V, and VC. The prefixes of the stem occur as Cv, CVC, VC, CV, and C.
 
 
 Slavey alphabet (1973)
 Tone is indicated with an acute accent and the ogonek indicates nasalization.
 North Slavey alphabet
 South Slavey alphabet
 Slavey, like many Athabascan languages, has a very specific morpheme order in the verb in which the stem must come last. The morpheme order is shown in the following chart.
 
 A Slavey verb must minimally have positions 13 and 14 to be proper. Here are some examples:
 Slavey marks gender by means of prefixation on the verb theme. There are three different genders, one of which is unmarked; the other two are marked by prefixes  and . However, only certain verb themes allow gender prefixes.
  is used for nouns which mark location in either time or space. Some examples of these areal nouns are house (ko̜̒e̒), land (de̒h), river (deh), and winder (xay). The gender pronoun can be a direct object, an oblique object or a possessor.
 kú̜e̒ house godetl’e̒h 3SG.paints.area kú̜e̒ godetl’e̒h house 3SG.paints.area 'S/he is painting the house.' ko̜̒e̒ house gocha area.in   shelter ko̜̒e̒ gocha {} house area.in shelter 'in the shelter of the house' ko̜̒e̒ house godeshįte̒ee area.floor ko̜̒e̒ godeshįte̒ee house area.floor 'floor of the house'  marks wood, leaves and branches. This gender is optional: some speakers use it and others do not.
 tse wood de̜la   tse de̜la wood {} 'wood is located' ʔo̜̒k’ay bird t’oge nest de̒ʔo̜ wooden   O   is   located ʔo̜̒k’ay t’oge de̒ʔo̜ {} {} {} bird nest wooden O is located 'A bird’s nest is located' tse wood ts’edehdla̒ 3SG.split.wood tse ts’edehdla̒ wood 3SG.split.wood 'S/he is splitting wood.' Slavey marks number in the subject prefixes in position 12. The dual is marked by the prefix łe̒h- (Sl)/łe- (Bl)/le- (Hr).
 
The plural is marked with the prefix go-.
 Slavey has first, second, third, and fourth person. When in position 12, acting as a subject, first-person singular is /h-/, second-person singular is /ne-/, first-person dual/plural is /i̒d-/, and second person plural is marked by /ah-/. Third person is not marked in this position. When occurring as a direct or indirect object, the pronoun prefixes change and fourth person becomes relevant.
 Like most Athabaskan languages, Slavey has a multitude of classifications. There  are five basic categories that describe the nature of an object. Some of these categories are broken up further.
 tewhehchú water.CL tewhehchú water.CL 'A clothlike object is in the water' Slavey has only one structural tense: future. Other tenses can be indicated periphrastically.
 An immediate future can be formed by the de- inceptive (position 9) plus y-.
 dałe 3.FUT.start out dałe {3.FUT.start out} 'S/he is just ready to go.' nadedajéh 3.FUT.start to heal nadedajéh {3.FUT.start to heal} 'It is just starting to heal.' Slavey has two semantic aspects: perfective and imperfective.
 The perfective is represented in position 11:
 déhtla 3SG.PFV.start off déhtla {3SG.PFV.start off} 'S/he started off.' whá long goyįdee 3SG.PFV.talk whá goyįdee long 3SG.PFV.talk 'S/he talked for a long time.' The perfective can also be used with a past tense marker to indicate that at the point of reference, which is sometime in the past, the event was completed 
 kǫ́e house gohtsį 3SG.PFV.build   area   PAST kǫ́e gohtsį {} {} house 3SG.PFV.build area PAST 'He had built a house.' The imperfective indicates that the reference time precedes the end of the event time:
 hejį 3   IPFV.sing hejį {} 3 IPFV.sing 'S/he sing, s/he is singing.' kǫ́e house gohtsį 3 begháyeyidá IPFV.build   area   1SG.PFV.see   3 kǫ́e gohtsį begháyeyidá {} {} {} house 3 IPFV.build area 1SG.PFV.see 3 'I saw him building a house.' Slavey is a verb-final language. The basic word order is SOV.
 Dene man ?elá boat thehtsį̒ 3SG.made Dene ?elá thehtsį̒ man boat 3SG.made 'The man made the boat.' tlį dog ts’ǫ̀dani child káyį̒ta 3SG.bit tlį ts’ǫ̀dani káyį̒ta dog child 3SG.bit 'The dog bit the child.' Oblique objects precede the direct object.
 T’eere girl denǫ mother gha for ?erákee?ee parka wihsį made T’eere denǫ gha ?erákee?ee wihsį girl mother for parka made 'The girl made a parka for her mother.' Slavey has no case markings. To differentiate between subject, direct object, and oblique objects, word order is used. The subject will be the first noun phrase, and the direct object will occur right before the verb. The oblique objects are controlled by postpositions.
 
 Possessive pronoun prefixes are found in Slavey. These pronouns have the same forms as the direct and oblique object pronouns. The prefixes are listed below with examples.
 melįé 3.POSS.dog nátla 3SG.is.fast melįé nátla 3.POSS.dog 3SG.is.fast 'His/her dog is fast.' bekée 3SG.POSS.slippers whihtsį 1SG.made bekée whihtsį 3SG.POSS.slippers 1SG.made 'I made his/her slippers.' yekée 4.POSS.slippers whehtsį 3SG.made yekée whehtsį 4.POSS.slippers 3SG.made 'S/he made his/her slippers.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help); kulí̜é 3PL.POSS.dog rała 3SG.is.fast kulí̜é rała 3PL.POSS.dog 3SG.is.fast 'Their dog is fast.' goyúé 3PL.POSS.clothes k'enáʔeniihtse 1SG.washed goyúé k'enáʔeniihtse 3PL.POSS.clothes 1SG.washed 'I washed their clothes.' There are both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions in Slavey.
 tse wood tádiihtth 1SG.cut į and gots'ę area.in goyíi 1SG.warmed naehddhí   tse tádiihtth į gots'ę goyíi naehddhí wood 1SG.cut and area.in 1SG.warmed {} 'I cut some wood and then I warmed myself up inside.' dene people ʔéhdá some jíye berry kanįwę 3SG.picks gots'ę and ʔéhdá some daʔuʔa 3.OPT.fish dene ʔéhdá jíye kanįwę gots'ę ʔéhdá daʔuʔa people some berry 3SG.picks and some 3.OPT.fish 'Some people will pick berries and some will fish.' ʔekó͔ there náohtlah 1SG.opt.go nehthę 1SG.want góa but nehji 1SG.be.afraid ʔekó͔ náohtlah nehthę góa nehji there 1SG.opt.go 1SG.want but 1SG.be.afraid 'I want to go there but I'm afraid.' sine 1SG.child ts'ó͔dane 1SG.saw gogháiidá 3PL.but kúlú 3SG.instead dedine 3.became gołį   ʔajá   sine ts'ó͔dane gogháiidá kúlú dedine gołį ʔajá 1SG.child 1SG.saw 3PL.but 3SG.instead 3.became {} {} "I was supposed to watch the children, but he did it instead." ʔįts'é moose gehk'é 3PL.shoot nįdé if segha 1SG.for máhsi thanks ʔįts'é gehk'é nįdé segha máhsi moose 3PL.shoot if 1SG.for thanks 'If they shoot a moose, I'll be grateful.' dora 3.head bekwí 1SG.OPT.comb ohts'í 3SG.wants nįwę of nįdé 3SG.combs yehts'í 4 dora bekwí ohts'í nįwę nįdé yehts'í 3.head 1SG.OPT.comb 3SG.wants of 3SG.combs 4 'Whenever Dora wants to comb my hair, she combs it.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help); shuruhté 1SG.OPT.go were to selejée sleep daderéʔ before o͔ woodbox ʔagúlá 3.is.full   1SG.made.area shuruhté were selejée daderéʔ o͔ ʔagúlá {} 1SG.OPT.go to sleep before woodbox 3.is.full 1SG.made.area 'Before I went to bed, I filled to woodbox.' segó͔łį 1SG.was.born gots'ę area.from jo͔ here deneilé 1SG.lived segó͔łį gots'ę jo͔ deneilé 1SG.was.born area.from here 1SG.lived 'I lived here since I was born.' se wood wehse 3.is.wet yihé because godihk'o͔ 1SG.make.fire yíle2 NEG se wehse yihé godihk'o͔ yíle2 wood 3.is.wet because 1SG.make.fire NEG 'Because the wood is wet, I can't make fire.' 
 There are three important parts to a relative clause. There is the head, which is the noun that is modified or delimited. The second part is the restricting sentence. The sentence modifies the head noun. The last part is the complementizer.
 ʔeyi the   goyidee 1SG.talked i COMP híshá 3SG.is.tall ʔeyi [dene] goyidee i híshá the [man] 1SG.talked COMP 3SG.is.tall 'The man whom I talked to is tall.' lį dog gah rabbit hedéhfe 3SG.chased I COMP gháyeyidá 1SG.saw lį gah hedéhfe I gháyeyidá dog rabbit 3SG.chased COMP 1SG.saw 'I saw the dog that chased the rabbit.' North and South Slavey are recognized as official languages of the Northwest Territories; they may be used in court and in debates and proceedings of the Northwest Territories legislature. However, unlike English and French, the government only publishes laws and documents in North and South Slavey if the legislature requests it, and these documents are not authoritative.
 In 2015, a Slavey woman named Andrea Heron challenged the territorial government over its refusal to permit the ʔ character, representing the Slavey glottal stop, in her daughter's name, Sakaeʔah, despite Slavey languages being official in the NWT. The territory argued that territorial and federal identity documents were unable to accommodate the character. Heron had registered the name with a hyphen instead of the ʔ when her daughter was born, but when Sakaeʔah was 6, Ms. Heron joined a challenge by a Chipewyan woman named Shene Catholique-Valpy regarding the same character in her own daughter's name, Sahaiʔa.
 Also in 2015, the University of Victoria launched a language revitalization program in the NWT, pairing learners of indigenous languages including Slavey with fluent speakers. The program requires 100 hours of conversation with the mentor with no English allowed, as well as sessions with instructors in Fort Providence.
 Slavey was the native language spoken by the fictional band in the Canadian television series North of 60. Nick Sibbeston, a former Premier of the Northwest Territories, was a Slavey language and culture consultant for the show.