The Tsimshianic languages are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of languages spoken in northwestern
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, ...
and in Southeast
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
on
Annette Island and
Ketchikan
Ketchikan ( ; tli, Kichx̱áan) is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District.
With a population at the 20 ...
. All Tsimshianic languages are endangered, some with only around 400 speakers. Only around 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak a Tsimshian language; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak
Coast Tsimshian
Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'álgyax, is a dialect of the Tsimshian language spoken in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. ''Sm'algyax'' means literally "real or true language."
The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimat ...
.
[ Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07)]
"Tsimshian."
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for c ...
. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.[Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.). (2005)]
"Tsimshian."''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'', 15th ed. (online version).
Dallas, TX: SIL International Retrieved on 2007-04-11. Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an independent language family, with four main languages: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisg̱a’a, and Gitksan.
[Alaska Native Heritage Center. (2000)]
"Eyak, Haida, Tlingit & Tsimshian."
Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
The Tsimshianic languages were included by
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States.
Sap ...
in his
Penutian
Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian s ...
hypothesis, which is currently not widely accepted, at least in its full form. The Penutian connections of Tsimshianic have been reevaluated by
Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Marie-Lucie Tarpent (born November 9, 1941) is a French-born Canadian linguist, formerly an associate professor of linguistics and French at Mount Saint Vincent University SVU Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is known for her descriptive work on ...
, who finds the idea probable, though others hold that the Tsimshianic family is not closely related to any other North American language.
Family division
![Tsimshianic_map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Tsimshianic_map.svg)
Tsimshianic consists of 4
lect
In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham ...
s:
# Tsimshian (also known as Maritime Tsimshianic, Lower Tsimshian, Northern Tsimshian)
#*
Coast Tsimshian
Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'álgyax, is a dialect of the Tsimshian language spoken in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. ''Sm'algyax'' means literally "real or true language."
The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimat ...
(also known as Tsimshian proper, Sm’algyax̣, Sm’algax)
#*
Southern Tsimshian
Southern Tsimshian, (pronounced: ) or , is the southern dialect of the Tsimshian language, spoken by the Gitga'ata and Kitasoo Tsimshians in Klemtu
Klemtu is an unincorporated community on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Colu ...
(also known as Sgüüx̣s, Ski:xs, Old Klemtu) †
# Nass–Gitksan (also known as Interior Tsimshianic, Inland Tsimshianic)
#*
Nisga’a
The Nisga’a , often formerly spelled Nishga and spelled in the Nisga'a language as (pronounced ), are an Indigenous people of Canada in British Columbia. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The name is a r ...
(also known as Nisqa’a, Nisg̱a’a, Nishga, Nisgha, Niska, Nass, Nishka)
#*
Gitksan
Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan) are an Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan ...
(also known as Gitxsan, Gitksanimx̣)
Coast Tsimshian is spoken along the lower
Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...
in Northwestern
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, ...
, on some neighbouring islands, and to the north at
New Metlakatla, Alaska. Southern Tsimshian was spoken on an island quite far south of the Skeena River in the village of
Klemtu
Klemtu is an unincorporated community on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kitasoo Indian Reserve No. 1.
Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians, originally from Kitasu Bay, and t ...
, however it became extinct in 2013. Nisga’a is spoken along the
Nass River
The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance. Nass Bay joins Portland In ...
. Gitksan is spoken along the Upper Skeena River around
Hazelton and other areas.
Nisga’a and Gitksan are very closely related and are usually considered
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 the same language by linguists. However, speakers from both groups consider themselves ethnically separate from each other and from the Tsimshian and thus consider Nisga’a and Gitksan to be separate languages. Coast and Southern Tsimshian are also often regarded as dialects of the same language.
As of 2013, Tsimshian courses are available at the
University of Alaska Southeast
The University of Alaska Southeast (UA Southeast, Alaska Southeast, or UAS) is a public university with its main campus in Juneau, Alaska and extended campuses in Sitka and Ketchikan. It is part of the University of Alaska System and was estab ...
.
Phonology
Consonantal inventory of Proto-Tsimshian:
[Tarpent, 1997, p. 70]
See also
*
Tsimshian
The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only r ...
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Boas, Franz. (1902).
Tsimshian Texts'' Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 27.
* Boas, Franz. (1911). "Tsimshian." ''Handbook of American Indian Languages'' Bulletin No. 40, part I, pp. 287–422.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk).
* Tarpent, Marie-Lucie. (1997). "Tsimshianic and Penutian: Problems, Methods, Results, and Implications." ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 63.52-244.
External links
(YDLI)
map of Northwest Coast First Nations(including Tsimshian and Nisga’a)
Dum Baal-dumSealaska Heritage Institutetranslated by
William Ridley
Bibliography of Materials on the Coast Tsimshian Language (YDLI)
(YDLI)
(YDLI)
(YDLI)
Tsimshian(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series
The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (commonly abbreviated as IDS) is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An ...
)
{{North American languages
Language families
Penutian languages
Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Indigenous languages of Alaska
Languages of the United States