Tsimshianic languages

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Pre-contact distribution of Tsimshianic languages
Pre-contact distribution of Tsimshianic languages

The Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in southern Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages [1]; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak Coast Tsimshian.[2][3] Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an isolate group of languages, with four main languages or lects: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisga’a, and Gitksan.[4]

The Tsimshianic languages were included by Edward Sapir in his Penutian hypothesis, a theory which is currently not widely accepted, but is undergoing investigation by M.-L. Tarpent.

Another linguist, John A. Dunn, is the proponent of the hypothesis that the Tsimshianic family is a branch of the Indo-European languages[5].

Contents

[edit] Family division

Tsimshianic consists of 4 lects:

  1. Tsimshian (a.k.a. Maritime Tsimshianic, Lower Tsimshian, Northern Tsimshian)
    • Coast Tsimshian (a.k.a. Tsimshian proper, Sm’algyax̣, Sm’algax)
    • Southern Tsimshian (a.k.a. Sgüüx̣s)
  2. Nass-Gitksan (a.k.a. Interior Tsimshianic, Inland Tsimshianic)
    • Nisga’a (a.k.a. Nisqa’a, Nisg̱a’a, Nishga, Nisgha, Niska, Nass, Nishka)
    • Gitksan (a.k.a. Gitxsan, Gitksanimx̣)

Coast Tsimshian is spoken along the lower Skeena River in Northwestern British Columbia, on some neighbouring islands, and to the north at New Metlakatla, Alaska. Southern Tsimshian is spoken on an island quite far South of the Skeena River, in the village of Klemtu. Southern Tsimshian is severely endangered, nearing extinction. Nisga’a is spoken along the Nass River. Gitksan is spoken along the upper Skeena River with communities around Hazelton and other areas.

Nisga’a and Gitksan are very closely related and are usually considered dialects 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Statistics Canada 2006
  2. ^ Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). "Tsimshian." University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Alaska Native Heritage Center. (2000). "Eyak, Haida, Tlingit & Tsimshian." Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
  5. ^ Dunn, John A. (2002). "Proto-Tsimshian: A New World Indo-European Language." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, San Francisco, January 2002.

[edit] 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. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
  • Tarpent, Marie-Lucie. (1997). "Tsimshianic and Penutian: Problems, Methods, Results, and Implications." International Journal of American Linguistics 63.52-244.

[edit] External links