'Gahcho Kué… or Tué?': How to pronounce the name of N.W.T.'s newest diamond mine
De Beers opened its newest mine on Tuesday. What does its name mean? And how do you say it?
Gahcho Kué, the N.W.T.'s newest diamond mine, officially opened on Tuesday. There's a lingering question though: just how are you supposed to say its name?
That depends who you ask.
In English, it's most commonly pronounced GOW – cho – KWAY, sometimes with a nasal inflection on the last syllable.
Marlene Grooms, the host of CBC North's Chipewyan language show, Denesulina Yatia, says the name comes from Chipewyan. That said, Gahcho Kué doesn't actually mean anything.
The proper name is Gahcho Tué, she says, with Gahcho meaning "big rabbit" and Tué meaning "lake."
Here's how Grooms says it:
Harriet Paul, host of CBC North's Tlicho show Tide Godi, agrees that the name is Chipewyan, although she says it's pronounced differently in Tlicho.
"We were always told it was Gahcho Kue, and so we've used that for 20 years now," says De Beers spokesperson Tom Ormsby.
"It wasn't as if it was a name we developed. Rather it was describing where the work was taking place at the time. So we just attached that name to everything that went on from thereon forward."
Grooms's mother, Chipewyan-speaker Sarazine Basil, likes the original name.
"In the old times when the elders used to travel on the land... there was a lot of jackrabbits or big barrenland rabbits," she says.
"It doesn't have nothing to do with diamonds. If you're a hunter or trapping in that area, people will say, 'Where are you going?' And you'll say 'Gahcho Tué,' And they'll know where to meet you."
with files from Lawrence Nayally