Bearlake is an emergent Athabaskan language within the North Slavey group of Slavey dialects of the Dene complex. It is spoken as a first language by about 580 people (450 of whom use it actively at home) in two communities in the Northwest Territories, Déline, formerly Fort Franklin (460 speakers out of a total population of 615), and Tulita, formerly Fort Norman (up to 120 speakers out of 450 total). At Déline, Bearlake is the lingua franca of a dialectally mixed community and many speakers are also fluent in Dogrib. At Tulita, an unknown number of the speakers of Bearlake are also fluent (or primarily fluent) in Mountain.