Saanich dialect

Saanich (also Sənčáθən, written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography and pronounced [sənˈt͡ʃaθən]) is the language of the First Nations 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.

Saanich
SENĆOŦEN Sənčáθən
Native toCanada, United States
RegionBritish Columbia, Washington
Native speakers
ca. 5 (2014)[1]
SENĆOŦEN
Sometimes NAPA
Official status
Official language in
BOḰEĆEN
SȾÁ,UTW̱
W̱JOȽEȽP
W̱SÍKEM
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologsaan1246

Language revitalization efforts

"The W̱SÁNEĆ School Board, together with the FirstVoices program for revitalizing Aboriginal languages, is working to teach a new generation to speak SENĆOŦEN" at the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School.[2][3]

SENĆOŦEN texting, mobile app and portal

A Saanich texting app was released in 2012.[4] A SENĆOŦEN iPhone app was released in October 2011.[5] An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at the First Voices SENĆOŦEN Community Portal.[6]

Phonology

Vowels

Saanich has no rounded vowels in native vocabulary. As in many languages, vowels are strongly affected by post-velar consonants.

  Front Central Back
High i   (u)
Mid e ə  
Low     ɑ

The rounded close high back vowel /u/ is found only in loanwords, such as CEPU (/kəˈpu/) "coat", from French.

/i/ is [ɪ] adjacent to a post-velar or labio-postvelar consonant, or preceding /ʔ/.

/e/ is [e̽]—rarely as low as [ɛ]—adjacent to a post-velar or labio-postvelar consonant or preceding /ʔ/. It is closer—almost [i]—next to a lateral, post-alveolar, or /w/.

/ɑ/ is [ɐ] before /j/. It is also affected by post-velars and /ʔ/.

/ə/ is generally mid central, but becomes [ɑ̽] adjacent to a postvelar or labio-postvelar, or a laryngeal obstruent, and especially between two such consonants, whether or not it is stressed. When unstressed, it is a close central [ɨ] following post-alveolars and before sonorants (including /ŋ/), and it is central rounded [ʉ] before the labialized obstruents.

Consonants

The following table includes all the sounds found in the North Straits dialects. No one dialect includes them all. Plosives are not aspirated, but are not voiced either. Ejectives have weak glottalization.

Bilabial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Prevelar Post-velar Glottal
central lateral plain rounded plain rounded
Stop plain p t (k̟) k̟ʷ k̠ k̠ʷ ʔ
glottalized pʼ tʼ k̟ʷʼ k̠ʼ k̠ʷʼ
Affricate plain ts tʃ
glottalized t̪s̪ʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ
Fricative s̪ s ɬ ʃ x̟ʷ x̠ x̠ʷ h
Nasal plain m n ŋ̠
glottalized (mˀ) (nˀ) (ŋ̠ˀ)
Approximant plain l j w
glottalized (lˀ) (jˀ) (wˀ)

The unrounded prevelar stop /k̟/ is found only in loanwords, as in CEPU (/k̟əˈpu/) above.

The dentals are often written ⟨θ⟩, ⟨tθʼ⟩, but this is inaccurate, as they are laminal sibilants, [s̻, ts̻], and are only rarely interdental. The alveolars /s, ts, tsʼ/, on the other hand, are apical, as are all alveolars, including the laterals. The post-velars are often written ⟨q⟩, ⟨χ⟩, etc., but are not actually uvular.

The phonemic status of the glottalized sonorants /mˀ nˀ ŋ̠ˀ lˀ jˀ wˀ/ is not agreed upon. Some linguists analyse them as unit phonemes, others as sequences of a plain sonorant and a glottal stop /ʔ/. They do not occur in word-initial position. They tend to [ʔC] following a stressed vowel, [Cʔ] preceding a stressed vowel, and creaky voiced sonorants elsewhere.

Stress

Saanich stress is phonemic. Each full word has one stressed syllable, either in the root or in a suffix, the position of which is lexically determined. "Secondary stress" is sometimes described, but this is merely a way of distinguishing lexical schwas (with "secondary stress", like all other vowels in a word) from epenthetic schwas ("unstressed").

Writing system
Saanich alphabet
SENĆOŦEN
Sənčáθən
Type
LanguagesNorth Straits Salish language
Saanich language
Time period
1978 to present
Parent systems
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Latn, 215
Unicode alias
Latin
U+0000 to U+007E Basic Latin and punctuation

The Saanich orthography was created by Dave Elliott in 1978. It uses only uppercase letters; making it a unicase alphabet, with one exception: the letter s, which marks the third person possessive suffix.

AÁȺBCĆȻDEH
/e//ej//pʼ//k̟//t͡ʃ//k̟ʷ//tʼ//ə//h/
IÍJKꝀ/K̵/₭ḴḰLȽM
/i//əj/, /ɑj//t͡ʃʼ//k̠ʼ//k̠ʷʼ//k̠//k̠ʷ//l/, /lʼ//ɬ//m/, /mʼ/
NṈOPQSŚTȾṮ
/n/, /nʼ//ŋ/, /ŋʼ//ɑ//p//kʷʼ//s//ʃ//t//t͡s̪ʼ//tɬʼ/
ŦUWW̲XX̲YZs
/s̪//əw/, /u//w//xʷ//x̠//x̠ʷ//j/, /jʼ//d͡z//-s/

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 a post-velar consonant (/k̠ k̠ʷ k̠ʼ k̠ʷʼ x̠ x̠ʷ ŋ̠ ŋ̠ʷ/), where it is written A.

Example text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

EWENE SÁN E TŦE U¸ MEQ EȽTÁLṈEW̱ Ȼ SNI¸S SQÍEŦ E TŦE XĆṈINS. U¸ XENENEȻEL TŦE U¸ MEQ EȽTÁLṈEW̱ E Ȼ SI¸ÁM¸TEṈS. ĆŚḰÁLEȻEN TŦE U¸ MEQ SÁN. ͸ Ȼ S¸Á¸ITEṈS TŦE U¸ MEQ SÁN X̱EN¸IṈ E TŦE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸S.

Grammar

Metathesis

In Saanich, metathesis is used as a grammatical device 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).

     ŦX̲ÉT 'shove' (nonactual) → ŦÉX̲T 'shoving' (actual)
     ṮPÉX̲ 'scatter' (nonactual) → ṮÉPX̲ 'scattering' (actual)
     ȾȽÉQ 'pinch' (nonactual) → ȾÉȽQ 'pinching' (actual)

References
  1. There were 6 speakers of North Straits Salish in 8 of the 10 communities in 2014, and 3 speakers of the only other surviving dialect in 2011.
  2. "Daily Fact #9: There are over 50 First Nations languages in Canada". Miss Teen Southern British Columbia. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  3. "ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School". Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  4. Renee Lewis (2012-08-02). "Indigenous tap new app to save old languages". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
  5. "FirstVoices Apps". FirstVoices. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  6. "FirstVoices: SENĆOŦEN Community Portal". Retrieved 2012-10-04.

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.
  • Montler, Timothy. (2018). SENĆOŦEN: A Dictionary of the Saanich Language. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
  • 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.
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