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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with North Straits Salish language. (Discuss) |
| Saanich SENĆOŦEN Sənčaθən |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Canada, United States | |
| Region: | British Columbia, Washington | |
| Total speakers: | 20 | |
| Language family: | Salishan Coast Central Straits North Straits Saanich |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | sal | |
| ISO 639-3: | str | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Saanich (also Sənčaθən, written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography) is the language of the Native American Saanich people. Saanich is a member of a dialect continuum called Northern Straits which is a Coast Salishan language. North Straits varieties are closely related to the Klallam language.
Contents |
Sounds
Vowels
There is considerable variation among the dialects in the mid vowels with /e/ ranging from [e] to [æ] and /ə/ being higher in palatal environments, rounded in labialized environments, and [ʌ] when stressed.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ||
| Mid | e | ə | |
| Low | a |
Consonants
The following table includes all the sounds found in the North Straits dialects. No one dialect includes them all.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Lateral Alveolar |
Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Rounded | Plain | Rounded | |||||||||
| Stop | Plain | p | t | (k) | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | ||||
| Glottalized | pʼ | tʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | |||||||
| Affricate | Plain | ts | tʃ | |||||||||
| Glottalized | ts̪ʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | ||||||||
| Fricative | s̪ | s | ɬ | ʃ | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | ||||
| Nasal | Plain | m | n | ɴ | ||||||||
| Glottalized | (mʼ) | (nʼ) | (ɴʼ) | |||||||||
| Approximant | Plain | l | j | w | ||||||||
| Glottalized | (lʼ) | (jʼ) | (wʼ) | |||||||||
The unrounded velar stop /k/ is found only in loanwords, such as CEPU (IPA: /kə.ˈpu/) "coat", from French.
/s̪, ʦ̪, ʼ/ are also written /θ, tθ, ʼ/, although they are not usually interdental. The uvular nasals /ɴ ɴʼ/ are also written /ŋ ŋʼ/, but they are not velar.
The status of the glottalized resonants /mʼ nʼ ɴʼ lʼ jʼ wʼ/ is not agreed upon. Some linguists analyse them as unit phonemes, others as sequences of a plain resonant and a glottal stop /ʔ/.
Writing system
The Saanich orthography was created by Dave Elliot in 1978. It uses only uppercase letters, with one exception: the letter s, which marks the third person possessive suffix.
| A | Á | Ⱥ | B | C | Ć | Ȼ | D | E | H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /e/ | /ej/ | /pʼ/ | /k/ | /ʧ/ | /kʷ/ | /tʼ/ | /ə/ | /h/ | |
| I | Í | J | K | K̴¹ | Ḵ | Ḱ | L | Ƚ | M |
| /i/ | /ǝj ɑj/ | /ʧʼ/ | /qʼ/ | /qʷʼ/ | /q/ | /qʷ/ | /l lʼ/ | /ɬ/ | /m mʼ/ |
| N | Ṉ | O | P | Q | S | Ś | T | Ⱦ | Ṯ |
| /n nʼ/ | /ɴ ɴʼ/ | /ɑ/ | /p/ | /kʷʼ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /t/ | /ʦ̪ʼ/ | /tɬʼ/ |
| Ŧ | U | W | W̲ | X | X̲ | Y | Z | s | |
| /s̪/ | /ǝw u/ | /w/ | /xʷ/ | /χ/ | /χʷ/ | /j jʼ/ | ? | /s/ | |
¹The K with a bar has not yet been adopted by Unicode.
The glottal stop /ʔ/ is not always indicated, but may be written with a comma: ,.
Plain and glottalized resonants are not distinguished.
The vowel /e/ is usually written Á, unless it occurs next to an uvular consonant (/q qʷ qʼ qʷʼ χ χʷ ɴ ɴʷ/), where it is written A.
Grammar
Metathesis
In Saanich, metathesis is used as a grammatical devise to indicate "actual" aspect. The actual aspect is most often translated into English as a be …-ing progressive. The actual aspect is derived from the "nonactual" verb form by a CV → VC metathesis process (i.e. consonant metathesizes with vowel).
| T̵X̲ÉT 'shove' (nonactual) | → | T̵ÉX̲T 'shoving' (actual) |
| ṮPÉX̲ 'scatter' (nonactual) | → | ṮÉPX̲ 'scattering' (actual) |
| ȾȽÉQ 'pinch' (nonactual) | → | ȾÉȽQ 'pinching' (actual) |
 |
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008) |
External links
- An Outline of the Morphology and Phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish (1986) (Timothy Montler's site)
- Saanich Classified Word List (1991) (Timothy Montler's site)
- SENĆOŦEN (Saanich, Northern Straits Salish) (Chris Harvey's Native Language, Font & Keyboard)
- Saanich Indian School Board
- SENĆOŦEN Welcome page (First Voices)
Bibliography
- Bill, Adriane; Cayou, Roxanne; & Jim, Jacquelin. (2003). NEȾE NEḰȺ SḴELÁLṈEW̲' [One green tree]. Victoria, B.C.: First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation & ȽÁU,WELṈEW̲ Tribal School. ISBN 1-4120-0626-0.
- Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
- Montler, Timothy. (1986). An outline of the morphology and phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish. Occasional Papers in Linguistics (No. 4). Missoula, MT: University of Montana Linguistics Laboratory. (Web version of the author's PhD dissertation, University of Hawaii).
- Montler, Timothy. (1996). Languages and dialects in Straits Salishan. Proceedings of the International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages, 31, 249-256.
- Montler, Timothy. (1999). Language and dialect variation in Straits Salishan. Anthropological linguistics, 41 (4), 462-502.
- Thompson, Laurence; Thompson, M. Terry; & Efrat, Barbara. (1974). Some phonological developments in Straits Salish. International Journal of American Linguistics, 40, 182-196.
- YELḰÁTȾE [Claxton, Earl, Sr.]; & STOLȻEȽ [Elliot, John, Sr.]. (1994). Reef Net Technology of the Saltwater People. Brentwood Bay, B.C.: Saanich Indian School Board.
