The Shuswap language (; shs, SecwepemctsÃn ) is the traditional language of the
Shuswap people Shuswap may refer to:
* Secwepemc, an indigenous people in British Columbia, Canada, also known in English as the Shuswap
** Shuswap Nation Tribal Council, a multi-band regional organization of Secwepemc governments based in Kamloops, British Colu ...
( shs, Secwépemc ) of
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, ...
. An endangered language, Shuswap is spoken mainly in the
Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia between 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 ...
and the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
. According to the
First Peoples' Cultural Council
The First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) is a First Nations governed Crown Corporation of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is based in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia on Tsartlip First Nation. The organization was formerly known as ...
, 200 people speak Shuswap as a mother tongue, and there are 1,190 semi-speakers.
Shuswap is the northernmost of the
Interior Salish languages
The Interior Salish languages are one of the two main branches of the Salishan languages, Salishan language family, the other being Coast Salish languages, Coast Salish. It can be further divided into Northern and Southern subbranches. The first S ...
, which are spoken in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. There are two
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 ...
s of Shuswap:
*Eastern: Kinbasket (Kenpesq’t) and Shuswap Lake (Qw7ewt/Quaaout)
*Western: Canim Lake (Tsq’escen), Chu Chua (Simpcw), Deadman's Creek (Skitsestn/Skeetchestn)–Kamloops (Tk'emlups), Fraser River (Splatsin, Esk’et), and Pavilion (Tsk’weylecw)–Bonaparte (St’uxtews)
The other Northern Interior Salish languages are
Lillooet
Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...
and
Thompson
Thompson may refer to:
People
* Thompson (surname)
* Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician
Places Australia
*Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality
Bulgaria
* Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province
Canada
* ...
.
Most of the material in this article is from Kuipers (1974).
Language decline
Many Indigenous languages, like SecwepemctsÃn, experienced rapid decline with the institution of the
residential schools. These schools prohibited the use of Indigenous languages in speech and in writing, resulting in two to three generations of students who were severely punished for not using English. Although some children forced to attend these residential schools can still speak their mother tongue, they have experienced much trauma which has great negative consequences on the future generations.
After residential schools were shut down, Aboriginal children entered the mainstream schooling system which is dominated by English. Inter-generational transmission of Indigenous languages was severely disrupted due to the dominance of English in education and in the workplace. This further contributed to the drastic decline of Indigenous languages. For example, the number of fluent speakers of SecwepemctsÃn had dwindled to 3.5 per cent by the mid-1990s.
Language revitalization and technology
An interface to
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
is available in SecwepemctsÃn. The
First Voices FirstVoices is a web-based project to support Indigenous peoples' teaching and archiving of language and culture. It is administered by the First Peoples' Cultural Council in British Columbia (B.C.).
FirstVoices was initially launched in 2003 to ai ...
website has a Secwepemctsin (Eastern Dialect) Community Portal, a Secwepemc Community Portal, and a
Splatsin (Eastern dialect) Community Portal for language learning. A November 2012 article estimated about 150 fluent speakers, mostly over 65, adding that "an estimated 400 students are learning the language, and "the majority of Secwepemctsin learners are under age 19."
Secwépemc language applications are available for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
. The Secwepemc Cultural Education Society released
Nintendo DSi
The is a dual-screen handheld game console released by Nintendo. The console launched in Japan on November 1, 2008, and worldwide beginning in April 2009. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony In ...
software in 2013 that teaches Secwepemctsin to young children.
A language authority of ten elder fluent speakers, from East, West, and the North, are recording pronunciation. , a language tutor was also in preparation, exportable onto CD for use offline. David Lacho, a University of British Columbia master's student, developed an augmented reality storybook app called ''Tuwitames'', available on the
Apple App Store
The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Deve ...
, to help people learn the Splatsin dialect of SecwepemctsÃn in support of the community’s language revitalization initiatives.
A (language nest) at
Adams Lake
Adams Lake is a large, deep, coldwater lake in British Columbia, Canada; its average depth ranks 6th in the world. The southern end of the lake is approximately north of the town of Chase in the Shuswap Country region of British Columbia. The l ...
is conducted entirely in the Secwepemc language. A language nest program in SecwepemctsÃn also takes place with the Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn (Splatsin Teaching Centre) Society where the grandmothers () interact with and teach the children. On January 21, 2013, Thompson Rivers University began offering a SecwepemctsÃn language class taught by fluent speaker Janice Billy.
Phonology
The Shuswap language has many consonants which the Roman alphabet is typically not used to represent. Two systems of representing Shuswap sounds are in use. One is the system used in Kuipers’ 298-page monograph on the language. It uses some letters which are not part of the Roman alphabet. The other system is based on one devised by Randy Bouchard of the British Columbia Language Project. It is based entirely on the Roman alphabet. The one exception is the symbol 7, which is used to represent a
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 ...
.
The Bouchard style system appears to be the one in use among Shuswap people themselves. Aside from the different symbols used, other differences exist between the two systems. The Kuipers’ system makes extensive use of automatic alternations. For example, the letter n is sometimes pronounced , sometimes , and sometimes . The choice of pronunciation is based on automatically applied rules. The reader is expected to know these rules.
The rules cover three classes of changes: (1)
automatic darkening of vowels (Non-automatic darkening of vowels is covered under
Phonological Processes
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 ...
.), (2)
automatic alternation of sonorants between consonantal and vocalic pronunciation, and (3) alternation of plain velars, uvulars, and laryngeals with the corresponding rounded sounds. The Bouchard style system does not appear to require the reader to know so many alternation rules. Examples of words written in the Bouchard style can be seen on two websites. These websites do not contain enough examples to show how all the automatic alternations are handled in the Bouchard style system. Therefore the Kuipers’ system of spelling is used in this article.
Vowels
The Shuswap language has five full vowels, , , , , , and one reduced vowel, .
An additional vowel, , is rare and often replaced by or . Its description is ambiguous. Kuipers gave its phonetic value as , indicating a mid unrounded back vowel, but described it in words as a mid central vowel.
There are restrictions on the distribution of vowels. The vowel is restricted to unstressed syllables. The vowels and also occur in unstressed syllables, but only in a few words. Vowels and are restricted to stressed syllables.
Automatic vowel darkening
The previous table shows the normal pronunciation of the vowels. Three of the full vowels, , , and , are subject to an automatic process called darkening, which changes how these vowels are pronounced. Automatic darkening is predictable; it occurs before uvular obstruents and before or after uvularized sonorants. It is not reflected in the Kuipers spelling system.
::Example: ''e'' in ‘he shoots it’ ''qemns'' , but ''e'' in ‘I shoot it’ ''qeqmn''
Consonants
Consonants are divided into two classes,
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 and
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
s. In the tables which follow, pronunciations are given in square brackets in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
transcription. The notation is the same as that of Kuipers (1974).
:* Plain plosives are usually unaspirated, and can be voiced in some environments.
:* The pronunciation of the dental-palatal obstruents c, c', and s ranges to , and .
:* Glottalized dental-lateral plosive t’ can also be pronounced as a glottalized dental plosive
:* The sonorants are voiced. Since they can be consonantal or vocalic, a pair of pronunciations is given for each in the table. Vocalic variants occur only in unstressed syllables
:* Consonantal forms of glottalized sonorants occur only after vowels.
:* The plain sonorants when vocalic have a different pronunciation at the beginning of a word: , , , , , , , and .
:* The long vowels representing plain vocalic sonorants are variable in length and may be short.
:* There is no glottalized plain uvular sonorant . Where this ought to occur due to phonological processes, what occurs instead is when a consonantal form is required, and (unstressed) when a vocalic form is required.
Consonantal-vocalic variation of sonorants
The variation of sonorants between consonantal and vocalic pronunciations is automatic, and is not indicated in the Kuipers’ spelling system. The rule for determining this as follows:
:*To start, all sonorants in a word are to be considered vocalic.
:*Then, beginning from the right hand side of the word, a sonorant in any one of the following situations is changed to consonantal:
::*a vowel on its right side;
::*a vocalic sonorant on its right side; or
::*a vowel on its left side.
::Example 1: l , m and m in variants of ‘go ahead!’ xÌŒÃlme and xÌŒÃlmxe
::Example 2: w in ‘downstream’ wtemtk
::Example 3: l and ɣ in ‘waterfall’ k’°əλlɣʔép
::Example 4: l , w , y and n in ‘I catch something in a trap’ lélwyn-kn
Writing system
Kuipers (1974) uses the alphabet shown in the Phonology section. The Shuswap Language Department uses a different alphabet:
Syllable structure
A Shuswap word consists of a stem, to which can be added various affixes. Very few words contain two roots. Any stressed root can have an unstressed alternative, where the vowel is replaced by
™
Most roots have the form CVC or CC (the latter only if unstressed). Other roots are CVCC or CCVC.
Suffixes begin either with a stressed vowel (dropped in forms where the root is stressed) or a consonant. Prefixes generally have the form C- or CC-.
Stress
Stress in Shuswap is not very prominent, and occurs only in longer words. Since and are always stressed and never is, stress is usually fairly simple to predict.
Phonological processes
Although Kuipers (1974) does not specify, in many cases the glottalized or rounded version of a consonant seems to represent an allophonic variation. For example, consonants which have a rounded form are rounded before and after . However, glottalization can be contrastive (the root q’ey-, "set up a structure," versus q’ey’-, "write") or allophonic (the root q’ey- appears with a glottalized final consonant in s-t-q‘ey’-qn, "shed"). Consonant reduplication can also have an effect on glottalization.
There are a number of ways in which sounds are affected by their environments. Resonants in the vocalic position are preceded by an automatic schwa, for example the word ("daughter"), pronounced . The darkening of vowels, as described below, is another case.
The distribution of vowels is quite complex. The vowels have the following main variants:
* i =
* u =
* o =
* e = .
and are unchanged. The environment around uvulars and velars produces a different set of variants, including occasional slight diphthongs. Additionally, some roots cause darkened vowels to appear in suffixes; one example is the prefix -ekst ("hand, arm"), which is darkened in x°əl’-akst. The darkened vowels are as follows:
* e =
* u =
* i = .
Morphology
Affixes
Shuswap's affixation system is robust. A nominalizing
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'' ...
s- is used to derive nouns from verbs, and prefixes to indicate a resulting state are added to verbs. A sample of Shuswap's small number of prefixes is below:
* /t’l’-/: during a period in the past
* /c-/ or /s-/: hither
* /t-/ or /tk-/: on top of, on the outside
* /wλ-/: group of people
* /Ê”-/: second person singular possessive
Most nouns contain
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. Suffixes are also used to indicate transitive, intransitive, and imperative verbs. Below are a few examples taken from the extensive collection of Shuswap suffixes:
* /-eps/: back of neck
* /-tem’/: bottom, canyon, lowland
* /-itʃeʔ/: surface, hide
* /-esq’t/: day
* /-eq/: berries
* /-el’txʷ/: a sheet-like object, skin, bark
Morphological processes
Shuswap makes extensive use of
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 ...
. Some examples of simple reduplication are:
* Initial reduplication:
-tÃq’m(bitterroot) to
É™tÃq’m(prepare bitterroots)
* Final reduplication:
uxÊ·-m(blow) to
əxʷ'úxʷ(swell up)
* Total reduplication:
iq(white) to
əq-'piq(flour)
* Consonant reduplication
In addition, there are several types of complex reduplication, involving patterns such as 11V12, 112V23, and 1123V34 (where 1 represents C
1, etc.).
Not all types of reduplication are productive and functional. Total reduplication indicates plurality and consonant reduplication is diminutive, but most other reduplications are difficult to explain.
In addition to reduplication, root morphemes can be modified by interior glottalization, such that a root CVC appears as CʔVC. Although the process is not productive, many recorded forms refer to a state, for example
ʔeɣ(cooled off) from
eɣns(he cools it off). Consonant reduplication can proceed as usual with interior glottalization.
Syntax
Word order
Word order in Shuswap is relatively free; syntactical relationships are easily conveyed by the
case marking
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...
system. However, it is common but not necessary for the
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 ...
to head the sentence.
Sentences with predicate first:
* wist ɣ-citx ''the house is high''
* cut l-nx̌peʔe ''my grandfather said''
Sentences with subject first (rare):
* ɣ-sq°yic m-cunsəs ɣx̌°ʕ°elmx ''Rabbit was told by fox''
Case marking
Shuswap uses two cases: the absolutive, for the
subject of an
intransitive verb
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 ...
, the subject of a
transitive verb
A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''.
Transitiv ...
, and the
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 ai ...
of a transitive verb; and the relative, for all other cases (for example, the actor of a passive verb, or an adverb).
Absolutive Case:
* wist ɣ-citx ''the house is high''
* m-tʔeyns ɣ-x̌°ʕ°elmx ɣ-sk’lep ''Fox met Coyote''
Relative Case:
* wist t-citx° ''a high house''
* m-cuntməs ɣ-sq°yic t-x̌°ʕ°elmx ''Rabbit was told by Fox'' (the subject is in the Absolutive)
Other forms
Nouns and verbs appear in for different forms, depending on their syntactic surroundings.
* The plain form: nouns and intransitive verbs, conjugated for person. Additionally, a distinction is made between object-centered and subject-centered words; compare
-m-wiwktn"the one I saw" with
-m-wiwkcms"the one that saw me."
* The suffixal form: for intransitive verbs, and also transitive verbs and nouns (third person singular only). This form is sometimes optional and sometimes obligatory. Examples of use include as an imperative substitute (
wislxəx° wl meʔ kicx-k "run till you get there") and in "if" and "when" sentences (
-twiwtwn "when I grew up").
* The nominalized form: for nouns and intransitive verbs. A nominalized intransitive verb refers to the goal object of the action, as in
ʔen t’-sq°iʔq°e l-nstix°C’e l-pəxyewtəs"this is the groundhog I shot yesterday." Nominalization is also used in questions, either yes-or-no or introduced with "what".
* The ʔs- form: refers to a fact, with overtones of goal-directedness. For example:
uct-kn ʔnsʔiʔλn"I want to eat."
Sample lexicon
The following is a list of
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 ...
(listed separately or as their simplest derivatives), and a selection of words derived from these roots by
affix
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 ar ...
es.
Words borrowed into English
The word
kokanee, a type of
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
, comes from Shuswap.
['']Oxford Dictionary of English
The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''ODE'') is a single-volume English dictionary published by Oxford University Press, first published in 1998 as ''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''). The word "new" was dropped from the titl ...
'', 3rd ed., p 977.
References
External links
First Nations Languages of British Columbia entryMap of British Columbia indigenous language-areasUbuntu Secwepemc Localization TeamSecwepemc Cultural Education Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shuswap Language
+
Interior Salish languages
Indigenous languages of the North American Plateau
First Nations languages in Canada
Languages of the United States
Native American language revitalization