Tsimshianic languages
Encyclopedia
The Tsimshianic languages are a family
of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia
and in southern Alaska
on Annette Island
and Ketchikan
. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak Coast Tsimshian
. Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an isolate group of languages, with four main languages or lect
s: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisga’a, and Gitksan.
The Tsimshianic languages were included by Edward Sapir
in his Penutian
hypothesis, a theory which is currently not widely accepted, but is undergoing investigation by Marie-Lucie Tarpent
.
s:
Coast Tsimshian is spoken along the lower Skeena River
in Northwestern British Columbia
, on some neighbouring islands, and to the north at New Metlakatla, Alaska
. Southern Tsimshian is spoken on an island quite far South of the Skeena River, in the village of Klemtu
. Southern Tsimshian is severely endangered, nearing extinction
. Nisga’a is spoken along the Nass River
. Gitksan is spoken along the upper Skeena River with communities around Hazelton
and other areas.
Nisga’a and Gitksan are very closely related and are usually considered dialect
s of the same language by linguists. However, speakers from both groups consider themselves ethnically separate from each other and from the Tsimshian and thus consider Nisga’a and Gitksan to be separate languages. Coast and Southern Tsimshian are also often regarded as dialects of the same language.
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and in southern Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
on Annette Island
Annette Island
Annette Island, or Taak'w Aan, is an island in Gravina Islands of the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean on the southeastern coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is at . It is about long and about wide. The land area is...
and Ketchikan
Ketchikan, Alaska
Ketchikan is a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States, the southeasternmost sizable city in that state. With an estimated population of 7,368 in 2010 within the city limits, it is the fifth most populous city in the state....
. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak Coast Tsimshian
Coast Tsimshian
Coast Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'algyax, is a Tsimshianic language spoken by the Tsimshian nation in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska...
. Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an isolate group of languages, with four main languages or lect
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
s: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisga’a, and Gitksan.
The Tsimshianic languages were included by Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
in his Penutian
Penutian languages
Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian stock or phylum has been the subject of debate among specialists. Even the...
hypothesis, a theory which is currently not widely accepted, but is undergoing investigation by Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Marie-Lucie Tarpent is a Canadian linguist, Associate Professor of Linguistics and French at Mount Saint Vincent University [MSVU], Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada....
.
Family division
Tsimshianic consists of 4 lectVariety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
s:
- Tsimshian ( Maritime Tsimshianic, Lower Tsimshian, Northern Tsimshian)
- Coast Tsimshian ( Tsimshian proper, Sm’algyax̣, Sm’algax)
- Southern TsimshianSouthern Tsimshian languageSouthern Tsimshian or Sgüüx̣s is the southern dialect of the Coast Tsimshian language, spoken by the Gitga'ata and Kitasoo Tsimshians in Klemtu, B.C..Today the language has just one fluent speaker....
( Sgüüx̣s)
- Nass–Gitksan ( Interior Tsimshianic, Inland Tsimshianic)
- Nisga’a ( Nisqa’a, Nisg̱a’a, Nishga, Nisgha, Niska, Nass, Nishka)
- Gitksan ( Gitxsan, Gitksanimx̣)
Coast Tsimshian is spoken along the lower Skeena River
Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada . The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the...
in Northwestern British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, on some neighbouring islands, and to the north at New Metlakatla, Alaska
Metlakatla, Alaska
Metlakatla is a census-designated place on Annette Island in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,375.- History :...
. Southern Tsimshian is spoken on an island quite far South of the Skeena River, in the village of Klemtu
Klemtu, British Columbia
Klemtu is a small village on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, Canada.Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians, originally from Kitasu Bay, and the Xai'xais of Kynoc Inlet, a subgroup of the Heiltsuk people. These two tribes live together as, and are jointly...
. Southern Tsimshian is severely endangered, nearing extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
. Nisga’a is spoken along the Nass River
Nass River
The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance...
. Gitksan is spoken along the upper Skeena River with communities around Hazelton
Hazelton, British Columbia
Hazelton is a small town located at the junction of the Bulkley and Skeena Rivers in northern British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1866 and has a population of 293...
and other areas.
Nisga’a and Gitksan are very closely related and are usually considered dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s of the same language by linguists. However, speakers from both groups consider themselves ethnically separate from each other and from the Tsimshian and thus consider Nisga’a and Gitksan to be separate languages. Coast and Southern Tsimshian are also often regarded as dialects of the same language.
Phonology
Consonantal inventory of Proto-Tsimshian:| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental | Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Labio-velar | Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Labio-uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-continuous obstruent | simple | *p | *t | *ts | *k | *kʷ | *q | *qʷ | *ʔ, *ʔʷ | |
| glottalized | *pʼ | *tʼ | *tsʼ | *kʼ | *kʷʼ | *qʼ | *qʷʼ | |||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
*s, *ɬ | *x | *χ | *χʷ | *h, *hʷ | |||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
simple | *l | *j | *w | ||||||
| glottalized | *lˀ | *jˀ | *wˀ | |||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
simple | *m | *n | |||||||
| glottalized | *mˀ | *nˀ | ||||||||
External links
- Tsimshianic languages (YDLI)
- map of Northwest Coast First Nations (including Tsimshian and Nisga’a)
- Sm'algyax – "The Real Language"
- Dum Baal-dum
- Sealaska Heritage Institute
- A Zimshian Version of Portions of the Book of Common Prayer (1882) translated by William RidleyWilliam Ridley (bishop)William Ridley was an English missionary for the Church of England in Canada and served as Bishop of Caledonia.-Life:Ridley was from Brixham Devonshire, England, and was the son of a stonemason...
- Bibliography of Materials on the Coast Tsimshian Language (YDLI)
- Bibliography of Materials on the South Tsimshian Language (YDLI)
- Bibliography of Materials on the Gitksan Language (YDLI)
- Bibliography of Materials on the Nisga'a Language (YDLI)
