Coast Tsimshian

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Coast Tsimshian
Sm'algyax
Spoken in: Canada, United States 
Region: northwest British Columbia, southeast Alaska
Total speakers: less than 200
Language family: Penutian
  Tsimshian
  Coast Tsimshian
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: tsi
ISO 639-3: tsi
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.
For the Tsimshian people, see Tsimshian.

Coast Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'algyax, is a Tsimshianic language spoken by the Tsimshian nation in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Sm'algyax means literally "real or true language."

Strictly speaking, Tsimshian is not a language indigenous to Alaska, but has been spoken there since under the leadership of missionary William Duncan moved to Metlakatla on Annette Island in 1887. A few Tsimshian also live in Ketchikan. As of 2002, about 50 of an ethnic population of 1,300 Tshimshian in Alaska speak the language.

The Sm'algyax orthography in use today is based on that developed by Tsimshianicists since the 1960s, beginning with Bruce Rigsby's work on the Gitksan language and including John A. Dunn's work on Sm'algyax and Marie-Lucie Tarpent's work on Nisga'a and Southern Tsimshian. Dunn, Tarpent, and Susan Marsden substantially revised it for School District No. 52 (Prince Rupert) when preparing the Suwilaay'msga Na Ga'niiyatgm, Teachings of Our Grandfathers book series in the early 1990s, with the blessing of the Tsimshian hereditary chiefs. Since then, the orthography and the recording of the language have largely been conducted by the Tsimshian Sm'algyax Authority.

Another orthography, used only in Alaska, is taught by a private organization called Dum-Baal-Dum.

The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimated the number of speakers of Sm’algyax in 2001 as around 400 and in 2003 as 200 or fewer (see references below). Whichever figure is more accurate, she added in 2003 that most speakers are over 70 in age and very few are under 50.

[edit] Linguists and other scholars who have worked on the Tsimshian language

[edit] Bibliography

  • Boas, Franz (1911) "Tsimshian" In Handbook of American Indian Languages, vol. 1. (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, no. 40.) Washington.
  • Dunn, John Asher (1978) A Practical Dictionary of the Coast Tsimshian Language. (National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper, no. 42.) Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
  • Dunn, John A. (1979) A Reference Grammar for the Coast Tsimshian Language. (National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Ethnology Service Paper, no. 55.) Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
  • Mulder, Jean Gail (1994) Ergativity in Coast Tsimshian (Sm'algyax). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Stebbins, Tonya (2001) Emergent Spelling Patterns in Sm’algyax (Tsimshian, British Columbia). Written Language and Literacy, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 163-193.
  • Stebbins, Tonya (2003) Fighting Language Endangerment: Community Directed Research on Sm'algyax (Coast Tsimshian). Osaka, Japan: Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University
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