Sahaptin language

Sahaptin or Shahaptin, endonym Ichishkin,[2] is one of the two-language Sahaptian branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho, in the United States;[3] the other language is Nez Perce or Niimi'ipuutímt.

Sahaptin
Native toUnited States
RegionWashington, Oregon, and Idaho
Ethnicity10,000 Sahaptins (1977)[1]
Native speakers
100–125 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
uma – Umatilla
waa – Walla Walla
yak – Yakama
tqn – Tenino
qot Sahaptin
Glottologsaha1240
ELPSahaptin
Sahaptin is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The word Sahaptin/Shahaptin is not the one used by the tribes that speak it, but from the Columbia Salish name, Sħáptənəxw / S-háptinoxw, which means "stranger in the land". This is the name Sinkiuse-Columbia speakers traditionally called the Nez Perce people.[4] Early white explorers mistakenly applied the name to all the various Sahaptin speaking people, as well as to the Nez Perce. Sahaptin is spoken by various tribes of the Washington Reservations; Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla; and also spoken in many smaller communities such as Celilo, Oregon.

The Yakama tribal cultural resources program has been promoting the use of the traditional name of the language, Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (″this language″), instead of the Salish term Sahaptin.[5]

Dialects

In the Handbook of North American Indians, Sahaptin was split in the following dialects and dialect clusters:[6]

  • Northern Sahaptin
    • Northwest cluster:
      • Klikatat
      • Taitnapam (Upper Cowlitz)
      • Upper Nisqually (Mishalpam)
      • Yakima
      • Pshwanwapam
    • Northeast cluster:
      • Wanapum
      • Palouse
      • Lower Snake River
      • Chamnapam
      • Wauyukma
      • Naxiyampam
      • Walla Walla (Waluulapam)
  • Southern Sahaptin (Columbia River dialects)
    • Umatilla
    • Rock Creek
    • John Day
    • Celilo (Wyampam)
    • Tenino
    • Tygh Valley

Phonology

The charts of consonants and vowels below are used in the Yakima Sahaptin (Ichishkiin) language:[7]

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar (Alveolo-)
palatal		 Velar Uvular Glottal
plainsibilantlateral plainlabial plainlabial
Plosive/
Affricate		 plain p t ts tɬ tʃ k kʷ q qʷ ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ kʼ kʷʼ qʼ qʷʼ
Fricative s ɬ ʃ x xʷ χ χʷ h
Nasal m n
Approximant l j w

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i iː ɨ u uː
Low a aː

Vowels can also be accented (e.g. /á/).

Writing system

This writing system is used for Umatilla Sahaptin.

Sahaptin alphabet (Umatilla) [8]
ˀacc̓č č̓hiɨk k̓kʷ
k̓ʷlłmn pp̓qq̓qʷ q̓ʷs
štt̓ƛƛ̓ uwxx̣xʷ x̣ʷy

Other works use the Yakima practical alphabet.[9]

Grammar

There are published grammars,[10][11] a recent dictionary,[12] and a corpus of published texts.[13][14]

Sahaptin has a split ergative syntax, with direct-inverse voicing and several applicative constructions.[15]

The ergative case inflects third-person nominals only when the direct object is first- or second-person (the examples below are from the Umatilla dialect):

i-

3.NOM-

q̓ínu

see

-šana

-ASP

yáka

bear

paanáy

3SG.ACC

i- q̓ínu -šana yáka paanáy

3.NOM- see -ASP bear 3SG.ACC

'the bear saw him'

i-

3.NOM-

q̓ínu

see

-šana

-ASP

=aš

=1SG

yáka

bear

-nɨm

-ERG

i- q̓ínu -šana =aš yáka -nɨm

3.NOM- see -ASP =1SG bear -ERG

'the bear saw me'

The direct-inverse contrast can be elicited with examples such as the following. In the inverse, the transitive direct object is coreferential with the subject in the preceding clause.

Direct Inverse

wínš

man

i-

3.NOM-

q̓ínu

see

-šana

-ASP

wapaanłá

grizzly

-an

-ACC

ku

and

i-

3.NOM-

ʔíƛ̓iyawi

kill

-ya

-PST

paanáy

3SG.ACC

wínš i- q̓ínu -šana wapaanłá -an ku i- ʔíƛ̓iyawi -ya paanáy

man 3.NOM- see -ASP grizzly -ACC and 3.NOM- kill -PST 3SG.ACC

'the man saw the grizzly and he killed it'

wínš

man

i-

3.NOM-

q̓ínu

see

-šana

-ASP

wapaanłá

grizzly

-an

-ACC

ku

and

pá-

INV-

ʔiƛ̓iyawi

kill

-ya

-PST

wínš i- q̓ínu -šana wapaanłá -an ku pá- ʔiƛ̓iyawi -ya

man 3.NOM- see -ASP grizzly -ACC and INV- kill -PST

'the man saw the grizzly and it killed him'

The inverse (marked by the verbal prefix pá-) retains its transitive status, and a patient nominal is case marked accusative.

ku

and

pá-

INV-

ʔiƛ̓iyawi

kill

-ya

-PST

wínš

man

-na

-ACC

ku pá- ʔiƛ̓iyawi -ya wínš -na

and INV- kill -PST man -ACC

'and it killed the man' (= 'and the man was killed by it')

A semantic inverse is also marked by the same verbal prefix pá-.

Direct Inverse

q̓ínu

see

-šana

-ASP

=maš

=1SG/2SG

q̓ínu -šana =maš

see -ASP =1SG/2SG

'I saw you'

pá-

INV-

q̓inu

see

-šana

-ASP

=nam

=2SG

pá- q̓inu -šana =nam

INV- see -ASP =2SG

'you saw me'

In Speech Act Participant (SAP) and third-person transitive involvement, direction marking is as follows:

Direct Inverse

á-

OBV-

q̓inu

see

-šana

-ASP

=aš

=1SG

paanáy

3SG.ACC

á- q̓inu -šana =aš paanáy

OBV- see -ASP =1SG 3SG.ACC

'I saw him/her/it'

i-

3.NOM-

q̓ínu

see

-šana

-ASP

=aš

=1SG

pɨ́nɨm

3.ERG

i- q̓ínu -šana =aš pɨ́nɨm

3.NOM- see -ASP =1SG 3.ERG

'he/she/it saw me'

See also

Notes
  1. Umatilla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Walla Walla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Yakama at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Tenino at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Leonard, Wesley Y.; Haynes, Erin (December 2010). "Making "collaboration" collaborative: An examination of perspectives that frame linguistic field research". Language Documentation & Conservation. 4: 269–293. hdl:10125/4482. ISSN 1934-5275.
  3. Mithun, 1999
  4. Wassink, Alicia Beckford; Sharon, Hargus (Dec 2020). "Heritage Language Features and the Yakama English Dialect". Publication of the American Dialect Society. 105 (1): 11.
  5. Beavert, Virginia and Hargus, Sharon Ichishkíin sɨ́nwit yakama = Yakima Sahaptin dictionary. Toppenish, Wash.: Heritage University, Seattle: in association with the University of Washington Press, 2009; 492 pp. OCLC 268797329.
  6. Rigsby, Bruce; Rude, Noel (1996). "Sketch of Sahaptin, a Sahaptian Language". In Goddard, Ives (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 17. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 666–692. ISBN 9780160487743, cited in Hargus, Sharon; Beavert, Virginia (2012-01-08). "First Position Clitics in Northwest Sahaptin" (PDF). University of Washington. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-03-02. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  7. Jansen 2010.
  8. Jansen 2010, p. 28-34.
  9. Jansen, Joana Worth (2010). A grammar of Yakima Ichishkiin/Sahaptin (PDF) (PhD). University of Oregon.
  10. Jacobs, 1931.
  11. Rigsby and Rude, 1996.
  12. Beavert & Hargus, 2009.
  13. Jacobs, 1929.
  14. Jacobs, 1937.
  15. Rude, 2009.

References
  • Beavert, Virginia, and Sharon Hargus (2010). Ichishkiin Sɨ́nwit Yakama/Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary. Toppenish and Seattle: Heritage University and University of Washington Press.
  • Hargus, Sharon, and Virginia Beavert. (2002). Yakima Sahaptin clusters and epenthetic [ɨ]. Anthropological Linguistics, 44.1-47.
  • Jacobs, Melville (1929). Northwest Sahaptin Texts, 1. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology 2:6:175-244. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
  • Jacobs, Melville (1931). A Sketch of Northern Sahaptin Grammar. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology 4:2:85-292. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
  • Jacobs, Melville (1934). Northwest Sahaptin Texts. English language only. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology 19, Part 1. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Jacobs, Melville (1937). Northwest Sahaptin Texts. Sahaptin language only. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology 19, Part 2. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
  • Rigsby, Bruce, and Noel Rude. (1996). Sketch of Sahaptin, a Sahaptian Language. In Languages, ed. by Ives Goddard, pp. 666–692. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Rude, Noel. (1988). Pronominal prefixes in Klikitat Sahaptin. In Papers from the 1988 Hokan-Penutian Languages Workshop: Held at the University of Oregon, June 16–18, 1988, compiled by Scott DeLancey, pp. 181–197. Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Papers in Linguistics.
  • Rude, Noel. (1994). Direct, inverse and passive in Northwest Sahaptin. In Voice and Inversion, ed. by T. Givón. Typological Studies in Language, Vol. 28:101-119. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Rude, Noel. (2006). Proto-Sahaptian vocalism. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 18: 264-277.
  • Rude, Noel. (2009). Transitivity in Sahaptin. Northwest Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 1–37.
  • Rude, Noel. (2011). External possession, obviation, and kinship in Umatilla Sahaptin. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 30: 351-365.
  • Rude, Noel. (2012). Reconstructing Proto-Sahaptian Sounds. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 32: 292-324.
  • Rude, Noel. (2014). Umatilla Dictionary. Seattle & London: University of Washington Press.
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