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The StoneyLanguage is a DakotaGroupLanguage of Canada. SIL code: STO. ISO 639-2: sio. Population: 1,000 to 1,500 speakers out of 3,200 population (1987 SIL). Region: Southern Alberta, west and northwest of Calgary, and central Alberta, west of Edmonton. Southern Stoney occupy 3 reserves represented on the Stoney Tribal Council at Morley, Alberta: Eden Valley, west of Longview, Alberta, the southern-most reserve and principally Bearspaw Band members (about 400 speakers), Morley, west of Calgary, the main administrative center of Stoney Country, with about 2,700 people of all three southern bands, the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley Bands, and the Big Horn Reserve west of Rocky Mountain House, the most northerly of the 3, with about 100 people, mostly Wesley Band. The other dialect is spoken at Paul and Alexis Bands. Alternate names: STONY, NAKODA. Dialects: SOUTHERN STONEY, NORTHERN STONEY. Comments: Dialects nearly 100% intelligible with each other. 89% lexical similarity with Assiniboine, 86% with Dakota of Manitoba, 85% with Dakota of North Dakota, 83% with Lakota. Many children prefer English. Vigorous use. Literacy rate in first language: Below 1%. Literacy rate in second language: 75% to 100%. They want provincially published school curriculum about their language, culture, and history. Bible portions 1970.(extract from http://www.ethnologue.com/)
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