Carrier Language - Classification

Classification

Carrier is generally regarded as one of three members of the central British Columbia subgroup of Athabascan, the other two being Babine-Witsuwit'en and Chilcotin. As noted above, the term "Carrier" has often been applied to both Carrier proper and Babine-Witsuwit'en but this identification is now rejected by specialists. The Ethnologue treats Carrier proper as consisting of two languages, Carrier (code: crx) and Southern Carrier (code: caf), where the latter consists of the dialects of the Ulkatcho, Kluskus, Nazko, and Red Bluff bands. More recent research disputes the treatment of "Southern Carrier" as a distinct language and in fact classifies this dialect group as one of two parts of a larger "Southern Carrier" dialect group that contains all of Carrier proper except for the Stuart/Trembleur Lake dialect. Southern Carrier in the sense of the Ethnologue, that is, the Blackwater dialect group, is mutually comprehensible with all other Carrier dialects.