Sahaptin language


Sahaptin or Shahaptin is one of the two-language Sahaptian branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho, in the United States; the other language is Nez Perce or Niimi'ipuutímt. Many of the tribes that surrounded the land were skilled with horses and trading with one another; some tribes were known for their horse breeding which resulted in today's Appaloosa or Cayuse horse.
The word Sahaptin/Shahaptin is not the one used by the tribes that speak it, but from the Columbia Salish name, Sħáptənəxw / S-háptinoxw, which means "stranger in the land". This is the name the Wenatchi and Kawaxchinláma traditionally call the Nez Perce people. Early white explorers mistakenly applied the name to all the various Sahaptin speaking people, as well as to the Nez Perce. Sahaptin is spoken by various tribes of the Washington Reservations; Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla; and also spoken in many smaller communities, including one in Oregon, Celilo.
The Yakama tribal cultural resources program has been promoting the use of the traditional name of the language, Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit, instead of the Salish term Sahaptin.

Tribes and dialects

Sahaptin tribes speak three mutually intelligible dialects:
Northern Sahaptin
Southern Sahaptin :

Grammar

There are published grammars, a recent dictionary, and a corpus of published texts. Sahaptin has a split ergative syntax, with direct-inverse voicing and several applicative constructions.
The ergative case inflects third-person nominals only when the direct object is first- or second-person :
;1) i-q̓ínu-šana yáka paanáy
;2) i-q̓ínu-šana=aš yáka-nɨm
The direct-inverse contrast can be elicited with examples such as the following. In the inverse, the transitive direct object is coreferential with the subject in the preceding clause.
Direct:
;3) wínš i-q̓ínu-šana wapaanłá-an ku i-ʔíƛ̓iyawi-ya paanáy
Inverse:
;4) wínš i-q̓ínu-šana wapaanłá-an ku pá-ʔiƛ̓iyawi-ya
The inverse retains its transitive status, and a patient nominal is case marked accusative.
;5) ku pá-ʔiƛ̓iyawi-ya wínš-na
A semantic inverse is also marked by the same verbal prefix pá-.
Direct:
;6) q̓ínu-šana=maš
Inverse:
;7) pá-q̓inu-šana=nam
In Speech Act Participant and third-person transitive involvement, direction marking is as follows:
Direct:
;8) á-q̓inu-šana=aš paanáy
Inverse:
;9) i-q̓ínu-šana=aš pɨ́nɨm

Phonology

The charts of consonants and vowels below are used in the Yakima Sahaptin language:

Consonants

Vowels

Vowels can also be accented.