Sahaptin language

Sahaptin
Native to	United States
Region	Washington, Oregon, and Idaho
Ethnicity	10,000 Sahaptins (1977)
Native speakers	100–125 (2007)
Language family	Penutian? Plateau Penutian? Sahaptian Sahaptin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: uma – Umatilla waa – Walla Walla yak – Yakama tqn – Tenino
Linguist List	qot Sahaptin
Glottolog	saha1240
ELP	Sahaptin
Sahaptin is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Sahaptin or Shahaptin, endonym Ichishkin, 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; the other language is Nez Perce or Niimi'ipuutímt.

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. 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.

Dialects

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

• Sahaptin
  • 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:

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar			(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			plain	sibilant	lateral		plain	labial	plain	labial
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)

ˀ	a	c	c̓	č	č̓	h	i	ɨ	k	k̓	kʷ
k̓ʷ	l	ł	m	n	p	p̓	q	q̓	qʷ	q̓ʷ	s
š	t	t̓	ƛ	ƛ̓	u	w	x	x̣	xʷ	x̣ʷ	y

Other works use the Yakima practical alphabet.

Grammar

There are published grammars, a recent dictionary, and a corpus of published texts.

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

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

• Sahaptian languages
• Sahaptin people
• Cayuse
• Palus (tribe)
• Umatilla (tribe)
• Walla Walla (tribe)
• Yakama

References

Bibliography

• Jacobs, Melville (1929). "Northwest Sahaptin Texts, 1". University of Washington Publications in Anthropology. 2 (6). Seattle: University of Washington Press: 175–244.
• Jacobs, Melville (1931). "A Sketch of Northern Sahaptin Grammar". University of Washington Publications in Anthropology. 4 (2). Seattle: University of Washington Press: 85–292.
• Jacobs, Melville (1934–1937). Northwest Sahaptin Texts. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology. Vol. 19. New York: Columbia University Press.

  part 1 (English language) hdl:/2027/mdp.39015036673898

  part 2 (Sahaptin language) hdl:/2027/inu.39000005878934

• Rigsby, Bruce; Rude, Noel (1996). "Sketch of Sahaptin, a Sahaptian Language". In Goddard, Ives (ed.). Languages. 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.
• Mithun, Marianne (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7.
• Rude, Noel (2009). "Transitivity in Sahaptin" (PDF). Northwest Journal of Linguistics. 3 (3): 1–37.
• Beavert, Virginia; Hargus, Sharon (2010). Ichishkiin Sɨ́nwit Yakama/Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary. Toppenish and Seattle: Heritage University and University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295989150.
• Jansen, Joana Worth (June 2010). A grammar of Yakima Ichishkiin/Sahaptin (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Oregon. Archived from the original (PDF) on Nov 27, 2023.
• 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. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024.
• Wassink, Alicia Beckford; Hargus, Sharon (Dec 2020). "Heritage Language Features and the Yakama English Dialect". Publication of the American Dialect Society. 105 (1): 11–38. doi:10.1215/00031283-8820598. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024.

External links

• Beavert, Virginia (2012). Wántwint Inmí Tiináwit: A Reflection of What I Have Learned (PhD thesis). University of Oregon. hdl:1794/12542. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
• "Sahaptin Noun Dictionary (Yakama Dialect)". Retrieved 2012-07-10.
• Muir, Pat (2010-02-20). "Virginia Beavert keeping Sahaptin language alive". Yakima Herald-Republic. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
• McDonald, Rachael (2009-05-25). "Yakama Elder Keeps Language Alive". KLCC Eugene Oregon NPR. Archived from the original on 2013-04-15. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
• Martin, Shelby (2009-02-14). "Rare Yakama Sahaptin language taught at university". Spokesman.com, The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
• Dadigan, Marc (2010). "Guardians of Language". CAScade, UO College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
• ELAR archive of Yakima (Sahaptin) language documentation materials