[5] Gwich'in is spoken primarily in the towns of Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson (aka Teetł'it Zheh), and Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River), all in the Northwest Territories and Old Crow in Yukon of Canada.

[6] In Alaska of the United States, Gwichʼin is spoken in Beaver, Circle, Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Birch Creek, Arctic Village, Eagle, and Venetie.

[7][failed verification] The ejective affricate in the name Gwichʼin is usually written with symbol U+2019 ’ RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, though the correct character for this use (with expected glyph and typographic properties) is U+02BC ʼ MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE.

Inhabitants of Old Crow in the northern Yukon speak a similar dialect to those bands living in Venetie and Arctic Village, Alaska.

[7] Projects are underway to further document the language from a linguistic standpoint, and foster the writing and translation skills of younger Gwich'in speakers.

In one project, lead research associate and fluent speaker Gwichʼin elder Kenneth Frank works with linguists and young Gwich'in speakers affiliated with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy (Mishler and Frank 2020).

[10] Assimilation efforts through residential schools played a factor in creating a cultural disruption and a language shift.

[11] The consonants of Gwichʼin are shown in IPA notation below, with orthographic symbols in brackets:[7] Gwich’in has six phonemic vowel qualities /i e a o u/ which contrast in duration, nasality, and tones.

The missionary Robert McDonald first started working on the written representation of Van Tat and Dagoo dialects Gwichʼin.