Nez Percé Language

Nez Perce, also spelled Nez Percé or called nimipuutímt (alternatively spelled ''nimiipuutímt'', ''niimiipuutímt'', or ''niimi'ipuutímt''), is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin (note the spellings ''-ian'' vs. ''-in''). Nez Perce comes from the French phrase , "pierced nose"; however, Nez Perce, who call themselves , meaning "the people", did not pierce their noses. This misnomer may have occurred as a result of confusion on the part of the French, as it was surrounding tribes who did so.

The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family (which, in turn, may be related to a larger Penutian grouping). It is spoken by the Nez Perce people of the Northwestern United States.

Nez Perce is a highly endangered language. While sources differ on the exact number of fluent speakers, it is almost definitely under 100. The Nez Perce tribe is endeavoring to reintroduce the language into native usage through a language revitalization program, but (as of 2015) the future of the Nez Perce language is far from assured.

Phonology

The phonology of Nez Perce includes vowel harmony (which was mentioned in Noam Chomsky & Morris Halle's '' The Sound Pattern of English''), as well as a complex stress system described by Crook (1999).

Consonants

The sounds / / and / / only occur in the Downriver dialect.

Vowels

Nez Perce has an average-sized inventory of five vowels, each marked for length. Unusually for a five-vowel system, however, it lacks a mid front vowel , with low front in its place. Such an asymmetrical configuration is found in less than five percent of the languages that distinguish exactly five vowels, and among those that do display an asymmetry, the "missing" vowel is overwhelmingly more likely to be a back vowel or than front . Indeed, Nez Perce's lack of a mid front vowel within a five-vowel system appears unique, and contrary to basic tendencies toward triangularity in the allocation of vowel space. A potential reason for this peculiarity is discussed in the section on vowel harmony below.

Stress is marked with an acute accent .

Diphthongs

Nez Perce distinguishes seven diphthongs, all with phonemic length:

Vowel harmony

Nez Perce displays an extensive system of vowel harmony. Vowel qualities are divided into two opposing sets, "dominant" and "recessive" . The presence of a dominant vowel causes all recessive vowels within the same phonological word to assimilate to their dominant counterpart; hence with the addition of the dominant-marked suffix :

With very few exceptions, therefore, phonological words may contain only vowels of the dominant or recessive set. Despite occurring in both sets, is not neutral; instead, it is either dominant or recessive depending on the morpheme in which it occurs.

This system presents a challenge to common concepts of vowel harmony, since it does not appear to be based on obvious considerations of backness, height, or tongue root position. To account for this, Katherine Nelson (2013) proposes that the two sets be considered as distinct "triangles" of vowel space, each by themselves maximally dispersed, where the recessive set is somewhat retracted (further back) in comparison to the dominant:

This dual system would simultaneously explain two apparent phonological aberrances: the absence of a mid front vowel , and the fact that phonemic can be marked either as dominant or recessive. Since the three vowels of a given set are placed with regard to the other vowels ''of the same set'', the low height of the front vowel appears natural (that is, maximally dispersed) against its high counterparts , as in a three-vowel system such as those of Arabic and Quechua. The high front vowel meanwhile, is retracted much less in the transition from recessive to dominant - little enough that the distinction does not surface phonemically - and therefore can be placed near to the crux around which the triangle of vowel space is "tilted" by retraction.

Syllable structure

The Nez Perce syllable canon is CV()(C)(C)(C)(C). That is, all syllables begin with a single consonant in the onset, followed by a vowel, which may be short or long. Coda sequences may comprise up to four consonants.

There are restrictions to the types of consonants that occur in the coda, both as single segments or in sequences. As a rule, ejective consonants never occur in the coda, and the longer the sequence, the bigger the restriction. The longest coda sequences tend to comprise morphemes. These are summarized in the following table, where ‹C'› represents any ejective consonant.

Writing system

Grammar

As in many other indigenous languages of the Americas, a Nez Perce verb can have the meaning of an entire sentence in English. This manner of providing a great deal of information in one word is called polysynthesis. Verbal affixes provide information about the person and number of the subject and object, as well as tense and aspect (e.g. whether or not an action has been completed).

Documentation History

Asa Bowen Smith developed the Nez Perce grammar by adapting the missionary alphabet used in Hawaiian missions, and adding the consonants s and t. In 1840, Asa Bowen Smith wrote the manuscript for the book ''Grammar of the Language of the Nez Perces Indians Formerly of Oregon, U.S.''. The grammar of Nez Perce has been described in a grammar and a dictionary with two dissertations.

Case

Nez Perce nouns are marked for grammatical case. Nez Perce employs a three-way case-marking strategy: a transitive subject, a transitive object, and an intransitive subject are each marked differently. It is thus an example of the very rare type of tripartite languages (see morphosyntactic alignment).

Nouns in Nez Perce are marked based on how they relate to the transitivity of the verb. Subjects in a sentence with a transitive verb take the ergative suffix ''-nim'', objects in a sentence with a transitive verb take the accusative suffix ''-ne'', and subjects in sentences with an intransitive verb don't take a suffix.

Verbal morphology

The Nez perce verb encodes number (and to a lesser extent person) for one or two arguments, and also has a very rich system suffixal system encoding tense, aspect, polarity and associated motion. In addition, it has a series of hundreds of preverbs encoding instrument, posture and various unusual categories.

In particular, it has one of the richest system of periodic tense among the world's languages, including matutinal, diurnal, vesperal, nocturnal and hivernal, as illustrated in the following examples (examples from Aoki 1994: 751–752, interlinear glosses from Jacques 2023:2-3).

The Nez perce verb has three different ways of expressing ''simulative'' 'pretend': a suffix ''-tay'', the combination of the reflexive indexation prefix with the 'by mouth' instrumental preverb, and the simulative ''-né·wi'' suffix.

Word order

The word order in Nez Perce is quite flexible and serves to introduce information on the topic and focus of a sentence.

Verb–subject–object word order

Subject–verb–object word order

Subject–object–verb word order

In media

The 2010 film '' Meek's Cutoff'' features a Cayuse man (played by Rod Rondeaux) who speaks the Downriver dialect of Nez Perce.

References

Bibliography

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* Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989). ''Titwáatit: (Nez Perce Stories)''. Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska. . (Material originally published in Aoki 1979).
* Aoki, Haruo; & Walker, Deward E. Jr. (1989). ''Nez Perce oral narratives''. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 104). Berkeley: University of California Press. .
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Vowel harmony

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* Chomsky, Noam; & Halle, Morris. (1968). ''Sound pattern of English'' (pp. 377–378). Studies in language. New York: Harper & Row.
* Hall, Beatrice L.; & Hall, R. M. R. (1980). Nez Perce vowel harmony: An Africanist explanation and some theoretical consequences. In R. M. Vago (Ed.), ''Issues in vowel harmony'' (pp. 201–236). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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* Kim, Chin (1978). 'Diagonal' vowel harmony?: Some implications for historical phonology. In J. Fisiak (Ed.), ''Recent developments in historical phonology'' (pp. 221–236). The Hague: Mouton.
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Language learning materials

Dictionaries and vocabulary

* Aoki, Haruo. (1994). ''Nez Perce dictionary''. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 112). Berkeley: University of California Press. .
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Grammar

* Aoki, Haruo. (1965)
''Nez Perce grammar''
University of California, Berkeley.
* Aoki, Haruo. (1970). ''Nez Perce grammar''. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 62). Berkeley: University of California Press. . (Reprinted 1973, California Library Reprint series).
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Texts and courses

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* Aoki, Haruo. (1979).
Nez Perce texts
'. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 90). Berkeley: University of California Press. .
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* Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989). ''Titwáatit: (Nez Perce Stories)''. Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska. . (Material originally published in Aoki 1979).
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* Watters, Mari. (1990). ''Nez Perce tapes and texts''. audio cassettes & 1 booklet Moscow, Idaho: Mari Watters Productions, Upward Bound, College of Education, University of Idaho.

External links

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Nez Perce language videos
YouTube

Phillip Cash Cash website
(Nez Perce researcher)
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(has audio)
** ttp://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/chief_joseph.mov Hinmatóowyalahtq'it: Speech of 1877 as retold by Jonah Hayes (ca. 1907)(.mov)
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Fox narrative animation
(.swf)
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Nez Perce Verb Morphology
(.pdf)
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wéeyekweʔnipse ‘to sing one's spirit song’: Performance and metaphor in Nez Perce spirit-singing
(.pdf)
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Tɨmnákni Tímat (Writing from the Heart): Sahaptin Discourse and Text in the Speaker Writing of X̣ílux̣in
(.pdf)
Nez Percé
at the Rosetta Project
OLAC resources in and about the Nez Perce language

{{Indigenous peoples in Washington

Indigenous languages of Idaho
Nez Perce
Sahaptian languages
Vowel-harmony languages
Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas
Native American language revitalization
Endangered languages of the United States