Halkomelem (; in the Upriver dialect, in the Island dialect, and in the Downriver dialect) is a language of various
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
peoples of the
British Columbia Coast
, settlement_type = Region of British Columbia
, image_skyline =
, nickname = "The Coast"
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Canada
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = British ...
. It is spoken in what is now
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, ranging from southeastern
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...
from the west shore of
Saanich Inlet
, image = Saanich Inlet from Gowlland Tod Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, Canada 13.jpg
, image_size = 260px
, caption = Saanich Inlet from Gowlland Tod Provincial Park
, image_bathymetry =
, caption_bathymetry =
, location = Northwest o ...
northward beyond
Gabriola Island
Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about and a res ...
and
Nanaimo
Nanaimo ( ) is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. As of the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, it had a population of 99,863, and it is known as "The Harbour City." The city was previously known as the "H ...
to
Nanoose Bay and including the
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 Canadia ...
from the
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...
Delta upriver to
Harrison Lake
Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres (95 mi²) in area. It is about 60 km (37 mi) in length and at its widest almost 9 km (5.6 mi) across. Its so ...
and the lower boundary of the
Fraser Canyon
The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...
.
In the classification of
Salishan languages
The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ag ...
, Halkomelem is a member of the Central Salish branch. There are four other branches of the family: Tsamosan, Interior Salish, Bella Coola, and Tillamook. Speakers of the Central and Tsamosan languages are often identified in ethnographic literature as "
Coast Salish
The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coas ...
".
The word ''Halkomelem'' is an
anglicization
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Culture of England, English culture or Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English ...
for the language Hul'qumi'num, which has three distinct
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
groups:
# Hulquminum / Hul'qumi'num (Island dialect) or "Cowichan" (spoken by separate but closely related First Nations on
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...
and adjoining islands on the west side of the
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia (french: Détroit de Géorgie) or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and the extreme northwestern mainland coast ...
: the
Snuneymuxw
The Snuneymuxw First Nation (pronounced ) is located in and around the city of Nanaimo on east-central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The nation previously had also occupied territory along the Fraser River, in British Columbia.
Pr ...
(Nanaimo),
Snaw-naw-as The Nanoose First Nation, also known the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, is a First Nations government located on central Vancouver Island in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, in the vicinity of the community of Nanoose Bay. They are Coast Salish pe ...
(Nanoose) - the former "Saalequun tribe" is part of both First Nations,
Stz'uminus (Chemainus),
Cowichan Tribes
Cowichan Tribes ( hur, Quw’utsun) is the band government of the Cowichan, a group of Coast Salish peoples who live in the Cowichan Valley region on Vancouver Island. With over 3,800 registered members, it is the single largest First Nations ban ...
,
Lake Cowichan (Ts'uubaa-asatx), an originally
Southern Wakashan-speaking people),
Halalt,
Lyackson,
Penelakut
The Penelakut are a large (about 1000 individuals) Hul'qumi'num-speaking First Nation. They live primarily on Penelakut Island (formerly Kuper Island) near the south end of Vancouver Island, and Galiano Island. Their land stretches to Tent Island ...
, and
Lamalchi.
# Hunquminum (hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓) (Downriver dialect) or "Musqueam" (spoken by seven First Nations in the Lower Mainland in and around Vancouver, as well as in the Fraser River Delta and the lower reaches of the Fraser River; which consider themselves linguistically and culturally related ethnicities - but do ''not'' identify as Stó:lō (although in the literature mostly attributed to these), but today often refer to themselves as "Musqueam", the
Musqueam
The Musqueam Indian Band ( ; hur, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm ) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only First Nations band whose reserve community lies within the boundari ...
,
Tsawwassen
Tsawwassen ( ) is a suburban, mostly residential community on a peninsula in the southwestern corner of the City of Delta in British Columbia, Canada. It provides the only road access to the American territory on the southern tip of the peninsul ...
,
Kwantlen,
Tsleil-Waututh
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation ( hur, səlilwətaɬ ), formerly known as the Burrard Indian Band or Burrard Inlet Indian Band, is a First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation ("TWN") are Co ...
,
New Westminster Indian Band,
Kwikwetlem
The Kwikwetlem ( hur, kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), whose name is on the modern map as that of the City of Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, are a Coast Salish Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast, indigenous people whose traditional territories and ...
(Coquitlam),
Katzie
Katzie First Nation ( hur, q̓ic̓əy̓) is an Indigenous band located in the Lower Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada. They are part of the Sto:lo Coast Salish group of peoples, historically referred to by European settlers as Fraser Riv ...
, and the now extinct
Snokomish
The Snokomish were a Halkomelem-speaking Coast Salish people whose territory was primarily located across the Boundary Bay area. The Snokomish were also known as the Derby people, as their territory included a portion of the Fraser River, near De ...
(Derby people).)
# Halqemeylem / Halq’eméylem (Upriver dialect) or "Stó:lō" (spoken by today 24
Sto:lo First Nations upstream along the Fraser River from Matsqui on to
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
; the historic "Ts'elxwéyeqw (Chilliwack)" (today's FN's Aitchelitz, Shxwhá:y Village, Skowkale, Soowahlie, Squiala, Tzeachten, and Yakweakwioose), "Pelóxwlh Mestiyexw (Pilalt/Pil’alt)" (today's FN's Cheam, Kwaw-kwaw-Apil, and Skwah), "Tiyt (Tait)" or "Upper Stó:lō" (today's FN's Popkum, Skawahlook, Chawathil, Seabird Island, Shxw'ow'hamel, Union Bar, Peters, and Yale), "Pepa:thxetel" or "Semà:th (
Sumas
Sumas () is a city in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. It had a population of 1,307 as of the 2010 census. Sumas is located adjacent to the Canada–U.S. border and borders the city of Abbotsford, British Columbia. The Sumas-Huntingd ...
)", and the "Sq’éwlets/Sqwōwich (Scowlitz)" (Sq'ewlets FN) tribes.
The language differences (namely, in phonology and lexicon) are greatest between the Island and Upriver dialects, with the Downriver dialect (especially the Tsawwassen First Nation) providing a central link between the other two. The diversity of the Halkomelem dialects is noted to be the result of complex social and economic forces and linguistic change, as many Island people crossed the Georgia Strait to camp along the Fraser River (in both the Downriver and Upriver areas) for the summer runs of salmon. Arranged marriages between children in different language areas was also common, helping to establish a regional social network in the Strait of Georgia–
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
Basin.
Use and revitalization efforts
The Halkomelem language is near extinction. In 2000, it was estimated that the number of fluent Halkomelem speakers was fewer than twenty-five. Most are middle-aged or older, and few are monolingual, as there was a flood of English-speaking settlers in the region in the mid-19th century. Language programs at the
Stó:lō Nation,
Seabird Island First Nation The Seabird Island First Nation, or Seabird Island Band ( hur, Sq'éwqel), is a band government of the Sto:lo people located on Sea Bird Island in the Upper Fraser Valley region, 3 km east of Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada. They are a me ...
, and
Cowichan First Nation
Cowichan Tribes ( hur, Quw’utsun) is the band government of the Cowichan, a group of Coast Salish peoples who live in the Cowichan Valley region on Vancouver Island. With over 3,800 registered members, it is the single largest First Nations ban ...
have been developed to save the language. A program aimed at adults at
Musqueam
The Musqueam Indian Band ( ; hur, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm ) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only First Nations band whose reserve community lies within the boundari ...
is a collaboration between the band and the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
First Nations and endangered languages program.
In September 2009, the
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
published American linguist
Brent Galloway
Brent Douglas Galloway (8 April 1944 – 6 August 2014) was an Americans, American linguistics, linguist noted for his work with endangered Amerindian languages, specializing in several of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. He completed h ...
's ''Dictionary of Upriver Halkomelem''.
A Halkomelem
iPhone app was released in 2011. This was followed by an
Android version was released in 2016. The app was developed by the FirstVoices website. There are 1754 words archived and 690 phrases archived on the FirstVoices website.
As of 2014, 263 fluent speakers had been reported. In 2014, the number of Head Start Programs was 21, and this included a language-nest immersion preschool.
Phonology
Note: All examples are drawn from the Downriver dialect of Halkomelem spoken by the
Musqueam
The Musqueam Indian Band ( ; hur, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm ) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only First Nations band whose reserve community lies within the boundari ...
band. Relevant differences in the
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of the Island and Upriver dialects are noted at the foot of the
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
charts.
Vowels
Halkomelem has five vowel phonemes. Long and short vowels (but not schwa) contrast. Vowel length is written in the native orthography as .
: Upriver Halkomelem dialects also have a mid back vowel .
All five vowel phonemes vary considerably phonetically. The phoneme /i/ has three distinct allophones. It is realized as following unrounded uvulars. It is realized as with a central off-glide preceding both unrounded and rounded uvulars. Elsewhere, it is realized as low or high . The /e/ is realized as a low to mid-front vowel, usually between or high . The /a/ is low and central to back, often close to . The /u/ is high, back, and rounded, realized somewhere between low or high .
When stressed, the schwa /ə/ appears in most environments as a mid-central, but it is fronted and raised before /x/, approaching ; before /j/ it is also fronted, approaching ; before /w/ it is lower and back, approaching ; and before rounded velars it is mid-back, close to . Unstressed /ə/ can be as high as before /x/ and /j/, and before labialized velars it is realized as or . This phoneme can also be assimilated to a stressed /e/ or a stressed /a/ in an adjacent syllable, by vowel harmony.
Consonants
: The stops and affricates are grouped together for simplification purposes.
: Of recent and/or peripheral phonemic status.
: /b d d͡ʒ f ʀ/ occur only in a few borrowed and imitative words.
: The five glottalized resonants pose a problem in phonemic analysis, but occur frequently.
: Occurs in the Upriver dialect.
The plain plosives are less
aspirate before vowels than in English, but they are more aspirate finally. Although the glottalized plosives are
ejective
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...
s, they are not usually strongly released.
Suttles (2004) makes several interesting notes on the Musqueam
obstruent
An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...
s. The labiodental fricative /f/ occurs in recent loans from English and their derivatives such as in ''káfi'' "coffee" and in ''číf'' "chief." The stops /t/ and /tʼ/ are articulated at a point slightly forward of that of the usual English /t d/, while the affricates ''c'' /ts/ and ''cʼ'' /tsʼ/ are somewhat more retracted than these same English /t d/. The affricate has only been recorded in "English people" and "English (language)." The glottalized lateral affricate /ƛʼ/ is produced when the apex of the
tongue
The tongue is a muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surfa ...
at the
onset
Onset may refer to:
*Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound
*Onset, Massachusetts, village in the United States
**Onset Island (Massachusetts), a small island located at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal
*Interonset interval, ...
is in the position for the lateral release rather than for a /t/, and there is less friction produced than with other affricates. The phonemes /k/ and /kʼ/ occur in "baby talk" as substitutes for /q/ and /qʼ/. The uvular fricative ''x̌'' is produced with a great deal of friction and/or uvular vibration, and it contrasts strongly with the velar fricative /x/.
There is variation in the extent to which Musqueam speakers glottalize resonants. Phonetically, there are glottalized resonants (e.g. ) and resonants preceded or followed by glottal stops (e.g. ), however, Suttles (2004) finds no instances of
contrastive distribution
Contrastive distribution in linguistics, as opposed to complementary distribution or free variation, is the relationship between two different elements in which both elements are found in the same environment with a change in meaning.
Phonology
I ...
among any of the three. He puts forth two explanations for these facts: that there are two sequences of phonemes, /Rʔ/ and /ʔR/, with overlapping allophones, or that there is a single phoneme that is realized in three distinct ways. In preferring the latter explanation, Suttles holds that there may be five glottalized resonant phonemes in the dialect, although Downriver speakers glottalize resonants very lightly, making them difficult to detect.
In most Upriver dialects, glottalized resonants do not exist, while in Island dialects, they are more sharply articulated (
tenseness
In phonology, tenseness or tensing is, most broadly, the pronunciation of a sound with greater muscular effort or constriction than is typical. More specifically, tenseness is the pronunciation of a vowel with less centralization (i.e. either mo ...
is a key feature of Island speech). As is the case with many other phonological features, Downriver Halkomelem stands as a link between the other dialect areas, and it is possible that its speakers vary depending on Island or Upriver influence. Other differences between dialects include: Island and Downriver have both /n/ and /l/, while Upriver has merged these as /l/. Upriver Halkomelem lacks the post-vocalic glottal stops of the other two dialects, and shows
compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...
in that environment. Additionally, Upriver dialects have greater
pitch differences, and some words are differentiated by pitch alone.
Stress and pitch
Based on Suttles' (2004) recordings of several speakers of the Downriver (Musqueam) dialect,
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
in Halkomelem consists of an increase in intensity and an accompanying rise in
pitch. The three levels of stress are primary (marked /׳/), secondary (marked /`/), and weak (unmarked). There is one vowel with primary stress in every full word, however, its occurrence is not completely predictable.
In un
inflected
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defini ...
words with more than one
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
, the primary stress usually falls on the first vowel (e.g. as in ' "hand" and ' "house"). There are exceptions to this general pattern (e.g. as in ' "enemy"). As shown by the preceding example, if the word contains both a full vowel and one or more schwas, the stress is placed on the full vowel. Again, there are exceptions to this pattern, such as in words with a final
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
that cannot be preceded by
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
(e.g. as in ' "one").
Although
minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate th ...
s contrasting stress are rare, they do exist in the language. The primary stress of a verb root consisting of a resonant, a schwa, and an
obstruent
An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...
followed by the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
/-t/ "
transitive" can fall on either the root or the suffix, allowing for minimal pairs such as ' "salvage it" and ' "finish it all."
The secondary stress appears most often in words that are composed of a root that has retained its stress and a stressed suffix (e.g. as in ' "help me"). It may be the case, however, that the secondary stress recorded by Suttles (2004) in words like ' is actually a falling pitch; this seems to be characteristic of the last stressed syllable of a phrase in the language. Additional analyses of the sentential
intonation patterns are needed.
Phonotactics
All obstruents (except the glottals) typically follow one another in sequences of up to four, although a sequence of five is also possible (e.g. as in ' "just standing in shock"). There are no specific restrictions on the types of obstruent sequences that can occur.
Plosive
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
s appearing in sequences are rearticulated, and sequences of /ss/ are common in the language.
Resonants
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is manner of articulation, produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voice (phonetics), vo ...
only appear adjacent to vowels. When these sounds occur in the middle of words, they are found in sequences of resonant-obstruent, resonant-resonant, and obstruent-resonant. An initial resonant is always followed a vowel, and a final resonant must be preceded by one.
The
laryngeals
The laryngeal theory is a theory in the historical linguistics of the Indo-European languages positing that:
* The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) had a series of phonemes beyond those reconstructable by the comparative method. That is, the ...
are more restricted than members of the other natural classes in Halkomelem. The glottal stop occurs only adjacent to a vowel, and, within words, it does not follow any obstruent except (the prefix) /s/. It can never occur in final position following a
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
. /h/ occurs only before vowels, following a resonant or one of the
fricative
A fricative is a consonant 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 t ...
s at morpheme boundaries, but never following other obstruents. It can appear between an unstressed and a stressed vowel, but it cannot occur between a stressed and an unstressed vowel.
Morphophonemics
Certain processes affect the realization of underlying sounds in Halkomelem. Alternations that occur fairly commonly are discussed in this section, rather than in the following section on
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
.
*In rapid speech, there is optional
loss
Loss may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Loss'' (Bass Communion album) (2006)
* ''Loss'' (Mull Historical Society album) (2001)
*"Loss", a song by God Is an Astronaut from their self-titled album (2008)
* Losses "(Lil Tjay son ...
of some instances of schwa, glottal stop, glottalization of resonants, and /h/.
**An unstressed schwa following an initial nasal stop may be lost, if there is a vowel preceding; the nasal is sometimes heard as part of that syllable (e.g. as in ' ~ ' "my father").
**/nə/ with no preceding vowel sometimes appears as syllabic (e.g. as in ' ~ ' "one kind").
**A glottal stop after an unstressed final vowel may be lost, in which case the vowel will be reduced to a schwa (e.g. as in ''méqeʔ'' ~ ''méqə'').
**The glottalization of resonants following unstressed vowels is often inaudible (e.g. as in ''smənʼé·m'' ~ ''sməné·m'' "descendants").
**/h/ before a stressed vowel may be lost when preceded by a spirant (e.g. as in ''shá·yʼ'' ~ ''sá·yʼ'' "finished").
*An unstressed schwa may take on the quality of an adjacent full vowel, or one that is separated from it by a glottal stop (e.g. as in ''spéʔəθ'' ~ ''spéʔeθ'' "black bear").
*When a root with the shape of /CARˀ/ (C is any consonant, A is a full vowel, Rˀ is a glottalized resonant), takes the suffix /-ət/ "transitive," the resulting form is /CAʔəRt/. It appears that the resonant and schwa have switched positions (a form of
metathesis), but the glottal stop protects the schwa from
assimilating to the full vowel (e.g. as in ''wílʼ'' "appear" and ''wíʔəlt'' "make it appear").
*Several roots appear alone, without having undergone
affixation
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...
(e.g. as in ''ʔí'' "big" and ''pá'' "get blown on"). When this type of root is followed by a
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
that begins with a stressed vowel, (e.g. as in /-ínəs/ "chest"), an /h/ appears (e.g. as in ''θəhínəs'' "barrel-chested"). A final /h/ is never realized after a stressed vowel.
*A number of suffixes beginning with /n/ have forms with initial /l/ when they are added to a
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
or
stem
Stem or STEM may refer to:
Plant structures
* Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang
* Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure
* Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
ending in /l/ (i.e. there is
alternation of /n/ and /l/ in certain morphological cases in this language) (e.g. as in /-nəxʷ/ ~ /-ləxʷ/ "limited control" in ''ɬə́qʼəlləxʷ'' "know it" and ''cə́llexʷ'' "catch up with him").
*In the
progressive and
resultative
In linguistics, a resultative (abbreviated ) is a form that expresses that something or someone has undergone a change in state as the result of the completion of an event. Resultatives appear as predicates of sentences, and are generally composed ...
forms of few verbs with initial /c/ or /x/ followed by /a/, the /c/ is
reduplicated
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwar ...
as /kʷ/ and the /x/ as /xʷ/ (e.g. as in ''cám'' "go/come inland" and its progressive ''cákʷəm'' "be going/coming inland").
*
Vowel gradation
In linguistics, apophony (also known as ablaut, (vowel) gradation, (vowel) mutation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, internal inflection etc.) is any Alternation (lin ...
often occurs between a full vowel, schwa, and zero, depending on the type of root or stem, type of suffix, and placement of stress.
*When some suffixes are joined with stems, a change in the quality of the stressed
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
, from one full vowel to another, in the stem, or (rarely) in the suffix results. The vowel mutations are the product of the assimilation of one vowel to that of an adjacent
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
at an earlier stage in the language's
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
. Three kinds of these mutations exist (although only the first example is common). In the first two examples, the vowel mutation is similar to the
umlauting effect of a suffix on stems in Germanic languages.
**Stem /e/ changes to /a/ (e.g. as in ''xʷƛʼáqtəs'' "long-faced"
'ƛʼéqt'' "long".
**Stem /a/ to /e/ (e.g. as in ''pé·ltʼθeʔ'' "buzzard (turkey vulture)," which is composed of ''spá·l'' "raven" and the suffix /-itθeʔ/ "clothing, blanket"
ith metathesis.
**Suffix /e/ to /a/ (e.g. as in ''sqʼəqʼəxán'' "partner," which is composed of ''sqʼəqʼáʔ'' "accompanying" and the suffix /-xən/ ~ /-xén/ "foot").
Writing system
In 1997, the Musqueam First Nation officially adopted the
Americanist phonetic alphabet. This alphabet does not use upper case letters.
Comparison
Morphology
Like the majority of
Salishan languages
The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ag ...
, Halkomelem is
polysynthetic
In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able to ...
. A word in Halkomelem may consist of a root standing alone and unaltered, or of a root altered by one or more processes of internal modification and/or accompanied by one or more affixes. Since all words (with the exception of a few adverbs) can function as
predicate
Predicate or predication may refer to:
* Predicate (grammar), in linguistics
* Predication (philosophy)
* several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic:
**Predicate (mathematical logic)
**Propositional function
**Finitary relation, o ...
heads, there is no basis for distinguishing verbs, nouns, and adjectives. There are other bases, however, for distinguishing these classes. Verbs have
progressive forms and do not take
possessive
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
affixes, while nouns do not have progressive forms and do take possessive affixes. Adjectives have neither progressive forms, nor do they take possessive affixes.
Compounding
In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of a custom formulation of a medication to fit a unique need of a patient that cannot be met with commercially available products. This may be done for me ...
is non-existent in the language, although some scholars believe to have found a few possible examples.
[Suttles, Wayne. (2004), 23–30.]
The majority of verb roots have the shapes CAC, CəC, CəCC, while noun roots typically have the shape CVCVC (V is any vowel). The most common shapes of adjective roots are CəC and CAC. There is a prefix that nominalizes verbs and adjectives, and there are several prefixes that make verbs out of nouns. Additionally, there are several ways to make adjective-like words from nouns. Processes of internal modification of the root include
reduplication
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwa ...
(of initial CV and CVC), shift in stress and vowel grade, and
glottalization
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consona ...
of resonants (which also affects suffixes). Roots of different shapes often undergo different processes to produce forms that are grammatically identical.
Verbs
Verbs roots are identified as
perfective
The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...
, as opposed to progressive, aspect.
* Perfective "split, tear"
* Progressive "be splitting, be tearing"
Several verbs also have a
durative aspect The delimitative aspect is a grammatical aspect that indicates that a situation lasts only a certain amount of time.Stephen Dickey. 2007. "A prototype account of the development of delimitative ''po-'' in Russian". In Dagmar Divjak and Agata Kocha ...
, which can occur in both forms.
* Perfective "bite it"
* Progressive "be biting it"
A number also have an iterative-dispositional aspect. For a few of these verb roots, this aspect can appear in both a progressive and in a perfective form.
* "easy to split"
The majority of verbs have a
resultative
In linguistics, a resultative (abbreviated ) is a form that expresses that something or someone has undergone a change in state as the result of the completion of an event. Resultatives appear as predicates of sentences, and are generally composed ...
form which is adjective-like and does not carry a progressive-perfective distinction.
* "split, torn"
* "spilled, capsized"
The
plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
can be optionally marked in all of these forms. The
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
is also marked, optionally, in only the progressive and resultative aspects.
Nouns
It is possible to internally modify noun roots in Halkomelem for the plural, the diminutive, and the diminutive plural. Compare:
* "hand"
* "hands"
* "little hand"
* "little hands"
A few nouns may have resultative forms. They do not have progressive forms, but they may be made into a verb with a verbalizing affix and then express this form.
Adjectives
Similar to noun roots, adjective roots can be internally modified for plural, diminutive, and diminutive plural. They can only have progressive forms if made into verbs by means of a verbalizing affix.
* "white"
* "white" (PL)
Complex adjectives are formed from adjective roots and lexical suffixes.
* "large bird"
Affixes
Halkomelem contains
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
es,
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
es, and
infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts with ''adfix,'' a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.
When marking text for int ...
es. All infixes of the language have been described in the preceding sections. Affixes are typically divisible into
inflectional
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
or
derivational and
grammatical
In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...
or
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
categories, depending on their involvement in paradigms and meaning, however, a number of Halkomelem affixes mix these categories. Suttles (2004) identifies the following classes of suffixes and prefixes; a sampling of these affixes follow.
*Non-personal affixes
**Suffixes of the voice system
***Transitive: /-t/ /-nəxʷ/ /-x/ "transitive"
***Intransitive: /-əm/ "intransitive," /-éls/ "activity" (compare "get buried," "bury it," "plant," and "bury something")
***Causative: /-stəxʷ/ "causative"
***Permissive: /-s/ "let," as in "let him go" or "let it be"
***Applicative: /-nəs/ "goal" (e.g. as in "go after him"), /-ném/ "go"
***Reflexive: /-θət/ "oneself," /-námət/ "oneself (limited control)"
***Reciprocal: /-təlʼ/ "each other"
***Subordinate passive: /-ət/ "subordinate passive"
**Aspectual and modal affixes
***Aspectual prefixes: /wə-/ "established," ''wəɬ-'' "already"
***Modal suffixes: /-ə́lmən/ "want to, intend to, seem about to"
**Derivational affixes
***Affixes with purely grammatical meaning
****Nominalizing prefix: /s-/ "nominalize (verbs and adjectives)"
***Verbalizing affixes (combine grammatical and lexical meaning): /c-/ "get, make, do, go to," ''ɬ-'' "partake of," /txʷ-/ "buy," /-à·l/ "travel by"
***Lexical prefixes: /mə-/ "come," /tən-/ "from"
***Lexical suffixes
****Body parts: /-aqʷ/ "head"
****Common artifacts: /-wət/ "canoe"
****Natural phenomena: /-ətp/ "plant, tree"
*Personal affixes
Possessive affixes
The following table lists the possessive affixes which appear in attributive possessive structures in Halkomelem.
Possession is marked either on the possessed noun (the head) or the word preceding it through these affixes. Together with the appearance of affixes, possession also requires a structural component, in that the possessor of the head is found to the right of the head. The possessor is always preceded by a determiner, although depending on the noun class, it can also appear with an
oblique case
In grammar, an oblique (abbreviated ; from la, casus obliquus) or objective case (abbr. ) is a nominal case other than the nominative case, and sometimes, the vocative.
A noun or pronoun in the oblique case can generally appear in any role exc ...
marker. If the possessor is a common noun, it will be introduced by a determiner, but without an oblique case marker. If, however, the possessor is a proper noun, it must appear in the oblique case. Thus, it will be preceded by an oblique case marker, and the possessed noun will appear without a possessive affix. For proper nouns, the determiner and the oblique case marker are fused into a single particle. Marking common nouns with an oblique case marker results in an ungrammatical construction:
Most verbs roots are
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
ally
patient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health c ...
-oriented (e.g. they have glosses like "get hit" or "get washed"), while few verbs are semantically
agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
-oriented (e.g. "look" or "see"). All are grammatically
intransitive
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
. These relations are different with the suffixes of the
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
system. A verb that is made up of an inactive root and an intransitive suffix is grammatically intransitive, but semantically active. An inactive or active root that takes on a
transitive suffix is grammatically transitive and takes an object. The transitive suffix is the base for an object or passive person suffix. Two of the most commonly used transitive suffixes distinguish actions performed with limited control or accidentally from those performed with full control or purposely.
Aspectual prefixes, which precede predicate heads, have adverbial meaning and express temporal distinctions.
Modal suffixes follow the suffixes of the voice system and indicate desire or intention and search or arrangement.
Lexical suffixes can be related to verb roots as
objects
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
, locus, or instruments; to adjective roots as noun
heads
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...
; and to noun roots as noun possessors or the noun heads of
modifiers
In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...
.
The
personal affixes distinguish first, second, and third person in singular and plural. There are neither
dual forms nor
inclusive/exclusive distinctions in this language. There is also a set of possessive affixes (prefixes for first and second person singular, suffixes for first-person plural and third person, and a combination of prefix and suffix for second-person plural). This system will be covered, in detail, in the "Syntax" section.
Ordering of affixes
Derivational prefixes and suffixes form an inner layer around the word root, while
inflectional
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
affixes form an outer layer around the root. Among derivational affixes, those with lexical meaning stand closer to the root than those with purely grammatical meaning. Among inflectional affixes, those of the voice and person systems stand closer to the root than the
aspectual prefixes and
modal suffixes.
*. "
hepunches holes in the bottom of it."
Syntax
In Musqueam, a sentence minimally consists of a
predicate
Predicate or predication may refer to:
* Predicate (grammar), in linguistics
* Predication (philosophy)
* several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic:
**Predicate (mathematical logic)
**Propositional function
**Finitary relation, o ...
. Predicate
heads
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...
can be bare
roots
A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients.
Root or roots may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...
(e.g. "far"), derived forms (e.g. "black bear"), inflected forms (e.g. "help him/her/them"), and forms including both
derivational and
inflectional
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
affixes (e.g. "name-base-transitive," as in "name a price"). Predicate heads can also be words that are definable morphologically. This includes verbs (e.g. "go"), adjectives (e.g. "big"), nouns (e.g. "man"), members of the closed sets of personal words (see the following section), and interrogative words (e.g. "what").
A verbal predicate may be expanded with the addition of one or two
auxiliary verbs
An auxiliary verb (abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a p ...
before the head and/or one or more adverbs preceding or following the head.
*''ʔi''(AUX) '. "I am helping him."
**Two pairs of verbs function as auxiliaries, setting the predicate within a spatial context. The choice between the
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
pair, /ʔi/ "be here" and /niʔ/ "be there," depends on the location of the speaker relative to whatever the predicate refers to. The directional auxiliaries, /ʔəmí/ "come" and /ném/ "go," identify motions toward or away from the speaker.
*''ƛ''ʼ(ADV) '. "I did it again."
Verb heads are also found with verb
complements and compound verbs.
*'("try") '. "He tried to fly."
Like verbal predicates, adjectival and nominal predicates can be expanded with other elements. Nominal predicate heads can appear alone, followed by particles and adverbs.
*''swə́yʼqeʔ cən''. "I am a man."
*''swə́yʼqeʔ čxʷ ƛʼe''. "You're a man too."
Syntactically, adjectival and nominal predicate heads appear with auxiliaries less often than verbs. Adjectives and nouns can appear together in nominal predicates expanded with adjectives. A nominal predicate head can be preceded by a modifying adjective or numeral.
*''ʔə́yʼ''("good") ''čxʷ''("you") ''swə́yʼqeʔ''("man"). "You're a good man."
Adjectives usually appear as predicate heads accompanied by
particles
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
only, but they can be preceded by auxiliaries and adverbs acting as
intensifier
In linguistics, an intensifier (abbreviated ) is a lexical category (but ''not'' a traditional part of speech) for a modifier that makes no contribution to the propositional meaning of a clause but serves to enhance and give additional emotional co ...
s.
*''kʼʷámʼkʼʷəmʼ cən''. "I'm strong."
*''ni''(AUX) ''ʔukʼʷámʼkʼʷəm''ʼ. "He
bsentis strong all right."
*''x̌ə́ɬ''(ADV) ''qʼáqʼəyʼ''. "He was very sick."
Person markers
The Halkomelem person markers (forms that correspond in meaning to English personal pronouns) include a set of affixes, one set of particles, and two sets of words (personal and
possessive
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
). As mentioned in the "Morphology" section, there is no
dual number
In algebra, the dual numbers are a hypercomplex number system first introduced in the 19th century. They are expressions of the form , where and are real numbers, and is a symbol taken to satisfy \varepsilon^2 = 0 with \varepsilon\neq 0.
Du ...
or
inclusive/exclusive distinction in the language, however, some scholars believe that the forms identified here as second-person "singular" were once used in addressing a married couple, a pair of brothers, or even a family, while the "plural" forms were used for a larger or less integrated group.
[Suttles, Wayne. (2004), 320–329.]
First- and second-person argument particles
The first- and second-
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
particles pattern like a
nominative–accusative case marking system. In other words, the same particles mark first- and second-person
arguments
An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
in both
intransitive
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
and
transitive predicates in main clauses (coordinate constructions).
Suttles (2004) classified the first- and second-person argument particles as second-position
predicate
Predicate or predication may refer to:
* Predicate (grammar), in linguistics
* Predication (philosophy)
* several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic:
**Predicate (mathematical logic)
**Propositional function
**Finitary relation, o ...
particles, along with about twenty other particles that can appear within the predicate. Most of the second-position predicate particles are mobile, appearing after the first word of the predicate (whatever that may be). If the only word in the predicate is the head, the first- and second-person argument particles will follow it; if the head is preceded by an auxiliary verb, they will follow the auxiliary; if the head is preceded by an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
, they will follow the adverb.
*''cʼéw-ət cən ceʔ''. "I'll help him/her/them."
*''ʔi cən cʼécʼəw-ət''. "I am helping him/her/them."
*''lə́qʼ cən wəmʼi técəl''. "I generally get here."
Object person markers
An
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
person marker can only be suffixed to a transitive verb (i.e. a verb stem that has a transitive suffix). The four forms appear to be composed of identifiable elements: /-S/ and /-am/ "non-third-person singular," /-al-/ "non-third-person plural," /-x/ and /-xʷ/ "first person," and /-ə/ second person. Third-person objects are unmarked.
The element /-S/ occurs with the transitivizer /-t/, and they coalesce as /θ/. With the root ''cʼéw-'' "help" and /-t/ "transitive," we find:
*''cʼéwəθàmx'' "help me"
*''cʼéwəθàlʼxʷ'' "help us"
These forms are normally accompanied by person markers.
Third-person arguments
The third-person arguments follow an
ergative–absolutive system. With an intransitive predicate head, a third-person argument is like a third-person object in being marked by zero. Plurality is optionally indicated by the particle '.
*'. "He/she/it/they will go."
*'. "They will go."
With a transitive predicate head in a main clause, on the other hand, a third-person agent must be marked by the suffix /-əs/. It always follows the transitivizer and object person marker, if any. Unlike the first- and second-person particles, the suffix does not move to follow an auxiliary or adverb. Again, the plurality of the third-person may be indicated by the particle '.
*'. "He/she will help him/her."
*'. "He/she helped him/her."
*'. "They will see me."
Constraints
In the
active
Active may refer to:
Music
* ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea
* Active Records, a record label
Ships
* ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name
* HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
paradigm, a third person cannot be the agent with a second person as the object. Instead, we find passive forms.
*'. "You folks will be helped."
Only third persons can be agents in the
passive
Passive may refer to:
* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive
* Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works
* Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
. Other relations (e.g. the forms "*I am seen by you" or "*he is seen by me") can be expressed only in the active (e.g. "you see me" and "I see him").
Subordinate clauses
A
subordinate clause
A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
is produced by prefixing one of the two subordinating particles, /wə-/ "if, when, that" and /ʔəl/ "whenever, whatever," to the first word in a predicate and replacing its
coordinate
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sign ...
agent marker with a subordinate agent marker. Subordinate agent markers are the same in both intransitive and transitive active predicates.
Subordinate clauses usually follow main clauses, but there are a few exceptions.
*''kʼʷəcnámə cən ceʔ, wənémʼè·n''. "I will see you, if/when/that I go."
Basic Halq̓eméylem words and phrases
See also
*
List of Halkomelem-speaking peoples
This is a list of indigenous peoples speaking Halkomelem, or who did so historically (as most living members of those peoples no longer speak them). The term Halkomelem people has been used by certain linguists to mean "Halkomelem-speaking people ...
*
Brent Galloway
Brent Douglas Galloway (8 April 1944 – 6 August 2014) was an Americans, American linguistics, linguist noted for his work with endangered Amerindian languages, specializing in several of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. He completed h ...
*
Donna Gerdts
*
Patricia Shaw
*
Wayne Suttles
Wayne Suttles (1918–2005) was an American anthropologist and linguist.
He was the leading authority on the ethnology and linguistics of the Coast Salish people of the Northwest Coast of North America.
Biography
As a student of Erna Gunther at ...
References
General
* Carlson, Keith Thor, ed. (2001). 'A Stó:lō-Coast Salish Historical Atlas. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre.
*
* Galloway, Brent D. (1993). A Grammar of Upriver Halkomelem. London, UK: University of California Press.
*
*
Suttles, Wayne. (1990). Central Coast Salish. In Northwest Coast, 453-476. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
* Suttles, Wayne. (2004). Musqueam Reference Grammar. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
External links
First Nations Languages of British Columbia page on Halkomelem*
ttp://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hulq/index.htm Lessons and Information about Hul'q'umi'num*
OLAC resources in and about the Halkomelem languageHalkomelem basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halkomelem Language
Coast Salish languages
Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast
First Nations languages in Canada