Sahaptian (also Sahaptianic, Sahaptin, Shahaptian) is a two-language branch of the
Plateau Penutian family spoken by
Native American peoples in the
Columbia Plateau
The Columbia Plateau is an important geology, geologic and geography, geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington (state), Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range a ...
region of
Washington,
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, and
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
in the northwestern
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
The terms ''Sahaptian'' (the family) and ''Sahaptin'' (the language) have often been confused and used interchangeably in the literature.
Family division
Sahaptian includes two languages:
:1.
Nez Perce
The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...
(''Niimiipuutímt'')
:2.
Sahaptin
Nez Perce has two principal dialects, Upper and Lower. Sahaptin has somewhat greater internal diversity, with its main dialects being
Umatilla and
Yakama.
Noel Rude's (2012) classification of Sahaptian is as follows.
*Proto-Sahaptian
**
Nez Perce
The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...
**
Sahaptin
***''
Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...
'' dialect
***''Northern'' dialect
****''Northwest'' dialect
****''Northeast'' dialect
Proto-language
Work on Proto-Sahaptian reconstruction has been undertaken by Aoki (1962) and Noel Rude (2006,
[Rude, Noel. 2006]
Proto-Sahaptian vocalism
In ''Papers for the 41st International Conference on Salish and neighbouring languages'', 264-277. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. 2012
[Rude, Noel. 2012]
Reconstructing Proto-Sahaptian Sounds
In ''Papers for the 47th International Conference on Salish and neighbouring languages'', 292-324. Working Papers in Linguistics (UBCWPL). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.).
Proto-Sahaptian consonants:
:
Proto-Sahaptian vowels:
:
Bibliography
*Aoki, Haruo. 1962. Nez Perce and Northern Sahaptin: A binary comparison. International Journal of American Linguistics 28(3). 172–182.
* Aoki, Haruo (1963). On Sahaptian-Klamath Linguistic Affiliations. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 29, no. 2: 107–112.
* Aoki, Haruo (1966). Nez Percé vowel harmony and proto-Sahaptian vowels. ''Language'', ''42'', 759-767.
* Aoki, Haruo (1970). ''Nez Percé grammar''. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 62). Berkeley: University of California Press. .
* Mithun, Marianne (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
* Rigsby, Bruce (1965). Continuity and change in Sahaptian vowel systems. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''31'', 306-311.
* Rigsby, Bruce; & Silverstein, Michael (1969). Nez Percé vowels and proto-Sahaptian vowel harmony. ''Language'', ''45'', 45-59.
* Rude, Noel. (2012). Reconstructing Proto-Sahaptian Sounds. ''University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics'', Vol. 32, pp. 292–324. Papers for the Forty-seventh International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, August 3–5, 2012, edited by Joel Dunham, John Lyon & Natalie Weber.
References
{{Indigenous peoples in Washington
Language families
Plateau Penutian languages
Indigenous languages of the North American Plateau
Indigenous languages of the United States