The Athabaskan languages are a subfamily of North American Indigenous languages. The Athabaskan languages are spoken widely across Canada and the United States, in a geographical area stretching from the West Coast to the west end of the Hudsons Bay. Athabaskan languages are most commonly spoken in the regions of Saskatchewan, the Northwestern Territories, and British Colombia (1).
In Canada, a total of 20,039 people reported speaking a language belonging to the Athabaskan language family in 2021. This makes the Athabaskan Languages the third most spoken Indigenous language subfamily in Canada. About 12,885 people in Canada speak an Athabaskan language as their mother tongue. Dene, Dogrib, Slavey-Hare, and Carrier were found to be the most spoken languages within the Athabaskan language family (2).
Geographic distribution of the Athabaskan languages (3).
