Moses-Columbia, or Columbia-Wenatchi, is a Southern
Interior Salish
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 ...
language, also known as ''Nxaảmxcín''. Speakers currently reside on the
Colville Indian Reservation
The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the northwest United States, in north central Washington, inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is federally recognized.
Established in ...
. The Columbia people were followers of
Chief Moses
Chief Moses (born ''Kwiltalahun'', later called ''Sulk-stalk-scosum'' - "The Sun Chief") (c. 1829 – March 25, 1899) was a Native American chief of the Sinkiuse-Columbia, in what is now Washington state. The territory of his tribe extended a ...
.
There are two dialects, Columbia (Sinkiuse, Columbian) and Wenatchi (Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan). Wenatchi is the heritage language of the
Wenatchi
The Wenatchi people or Šnp̍əšqʷáw̉šəxʷi / Np̓əšqʷáw̓səxʷ ("People in the between") are Native Americans who originally lived near the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers in Central Washington state. They spoke Interi ...
,
Chelan, and
Entiat tribes
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
, Columbian of the
Sinkiuse-Columbia
The Sinkiuse-Columbia are a Native American tribe so-called because of their former prominent association with the Columbia River. They belong to the inland division of the Salishan group, with their nearest relatives being the Wenatchis and Me ...
.
Phonology
Phonology of the Columbia-Wenatchi dialect:
The three vowels in Moses-Columbia are /i/, /a/, /u/. They are sometimes transcribed as
/i/,
/u/, and
� /a/, and could also tend to sound unstressed, almost as a schwa sound, /ə/.
References
Further reading
* Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa and Paul Proulx. 2000. "REVIEWS - What's in a Word? Structure in Moses-Columbia Salish". ''International Journal of American Linguistics''. 66, no. 3: 410.
* Kinkade, M. Dale. ''Dictionary of the Moses-Columbia Language (Nxaʔamxcín)''. Nespelem, Wash: Colville Confederated Tribes, 1981.
* Mattina, Nancy. 2006. "Determiner Phrases in Moses-Columbia Salish". ''International Journal of American Linguistics''. 72, no. 1: 97.
* Willet, Marie Louise. 2003." A Grammatical Sketch of Nxa'amxcin" PhD Thesis, University of Victoria.
Interior Salish languages
Indigenous languages of the North American Plateau
Extinct languages of North America
Indigenous languages of Washington (state)
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