Nuu-chah-nulth language


Nuu-chah-nulth, also known as Nootka, is a Wakashan language in the Pacific Northwest of North America on the west coast of Vancouver Island, from Barkley Sound to Quatsino Sound in British Columbia by the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. Nuu-chah-nulth is a Southern Wakashan language related to Nitinaht and Makah.
It is the first language of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast to have documentary written materials describing it. In the 1780s, Captains Vancouver, Quadra, and other European explorers and traders frequented Nootka Sound and the other Nuu-chah-nulth communities, making reports of their voyages. From 1803–1805 John R. Jewitt, an English blacksmith, was held captive by chief Maquinna at Nootka Sound. He made an effort to learn the language, and in 1815 published a memoir with a brief glossary of its terms.

Name

The provenance of the term "Nuu-chah-nulth", meaning "along the outside " dates from the 1970s, when the various groups of speakers of this language joined together, disliking the term "Nootka". The name given by earlier sources for this language is Tahkaht; that name was used also to refer to themselves.

Sounds

Consonants

The 35 consonants of Nuu-chah-nulth:
  1. Of the alveolar consonants, nasal and laterals are apico-alveolar while the rest are denti-alveolar.
  2. Glottalized sonorants are realized as sonorants with pre-glottalization. They are arguably conceptually the same as ejective consonants, though a preglottalized labial nasal could be analyzed as the stop–nasal sequence /ʔm/, as a nasal preceded by a creaky voiced vowel, or a combination of the two.
  3. The approximant is more often epiglottal and functions phonologically as a stop.
The pharyngeal consonants developed from mergers of uvular sounds; derives from a merger of and while came about from a merger of and .

Vowels

Nuu-chah-nulth vowels are influenced by surrounding consonants with certain "back" consonants conditioning lower, more back vowel allophones
The mid vowels and appear in vocative forms and in ceremonial expressions. is a possible realization of after a glottalized sonorant.
In the environment of glottalized resonants as well as ejective and pharyngeal consonants, vowels can be "laryngealized" which often means creaky voice.
In general, syllable weight determines stress placement; short vowels followed by non-glottalized consonants and long vowels are heavy. In sequences where there are no heavy syllables or only heavy syllables, the first syllable is stressed.
Nuu-chah-nulth has phonemic short and long vowels. Traditionally, a third class of vowels, known as "variable length" vowels, is recognized. These are vowels that are long when they are found within the first two syllables of a word, and short elsewhere.

Grammar

Vocabulary

The Nuu-chah-nulth language contributed much of the vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon. It is thought that oceanic commerce and exchanges between the Nuu-chah-nulth and other Southern Wakashan speakers with the Chinookan-speaking peoples of the lower Columbia River led to the foundations of the trade jargon that became known as Chinook. Nootkan words in Chinook Jargon include hiyu, from Nuu-chah-nulth for "ten", siah, from the Nuu-chah-nulth for "sky".
A dictionary of the language, with some 7,500 entries, was created after 15 years of research. It is based on both work with current speakers and notes from linguist Edward Sapir, taken almost a century ago. The dictionary, however, is a subject of controversy, with a number of Nuu-chah-nulth elders questioning the author's right to disclose their language.

Dialects

Nuu-chah-nulth has 12 different dialects:
Nuuchahnulth had a name for each place within their traditional territory. These are just a few still used to this day:
A Ehattesaht iPhone app was released in January 2012. An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at the First Voices Ehattesaht Nuchatlaht Community Portal.