Thompson language

Thompson
	Nłeʔkepmxcín
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	British Columbia, Washington
Ethnicity	3,105 Nlaka'pamux
Native speakers	130 (2014 FPCC)[1]
Language family	Salishan Interior Salish Northern Thompson; ; ;
Writing system	Duployan shorthand (historical)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thp
Glottolog	thom1243[2]

The Thompson language, properly known as Nlaka'pamuctsin, also known as the Nlaka'pamux ('Nthlakampx') language, is an Interior Salishan language spoken in the Fraser Canyon, Thompson Canyon, Nicola Country of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and also (historically) in the North Cascades region of Whatcom and Chelan counties of the state of Washington in the United States. A dialect distinctive to the Nicola Valley is called Scw'exmx, which is the name of the subgroup of the Nlaka'pamux who live there.

Phonology

Nlaka'pamuctsin is a consonant-heavy language. The consonants can be divided into two subgroups: obstruents, which restrict airflow, and sonorants or resonants, which do not.[3] The sonorants are often syllabic consonants, which can form syllables on their own without vowels.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Lateral	Post-dental	Alveopalatal	(Pre)-velar	Rounded (pre-)velar	Post-velar	Rounded post-velar	Laryngeal
Obstruents	Stops, glottalized ejective	pʼ	(tʼ)	tɬʼ	tsʼ		kʼ	kʼ^w	qʼ	qʼ^w	ʔ
	Stops, plain	p	t	ɬ	tʃ	ts	k	k^w	q	q^w	ʔ
	Spirants			ɬ	ʃ	s	x	x^w	χ	χ^w	h
Resonants	Plain	m	n	l	z	j	ɣ	w	ʕ	ʕ^w
Resonants	Laryngealized	mʼ	nʼ	lʼ	zʼ	jʼ	ɣʼ	wʼ	ʕʼ	ʕʼ^w

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	nor.	ret.	nor.	ret.	Back
Close	i ~ i̠				u
Mid	e		ə ~ ə̠		o
Open			a

Stress is used with an acute accent; á.[4][5]

Morphology and syntax

Conventional wisdom about Salishan languages has long maintained an absence of lexical categories in that family. Many researchers believe there is a lack of contrast between parts of speech like nouns and verbs in Nlaka'pamuctsin, based on a lack of clear morphological differences.[6][7] Instead, linguists discuss morphology and syntax in Salishan based on a framework of predicates and particles.[7] However, recent work suggests a changing understanding of Salishan grammar. Now, most Salishanists believe that functional categories are not prescriptive of lexical categories, and that morphological evidence does not prove that the latter categories do not exist, only that the distinction is more subtle in some languages than in others.[8][9]

Lexical suffixes

One morphological feature of Nlaka'pamuctsin is lexical suffixes.[7] These are words that add nuance to predicates and can be affixed to the ends of root words to add their general meaning to that word.[3] Thompson and Thompson assert that as a result of English language influence, speakers are using these more complex predicates less and less in favor of simpler predicates with complements and adjuncts, resulting in “a general decline in the exploitation of the rich synthetic resources of the language.”[3]

Suffix	Suffix meaning	Root	Root meaning	Suffixed form
꞊uyəm’x^w	earth, land, place; in vicinity; (earth) oven; baked goods	/q’íx̣-t	strong, secure	/q’íx̣꞊ym’x^w	firm, hard ground
		√c’əɬ	cold	/c’ɬ꞊úym’x^w	it is a cold country
		k^w[ʔá]l’	turn green	/k^wa[ʔ]l’꞊úym’x^w	the grass turns green
		√c’áp	ferment	n/c’áp꞊ym’x^w	sour-dough, yeast bread
꞊ekst	hand, arm	√kiyèʔ	ahead, in front, principal, the eldest	s/kiyèʔ꞊qín'꞊kst	thumb
꞊qin	head				thumb
꞊xn	foot, leg			s/kiyèʔ꞊qín'꞊xn	big toe
꞊xn	foot, leg	√k'əm	focal area	n/k'm꞊énk꞊xn	sole of foot
꞊ene(ʔ)k	belly, under side	√k'əm	focal area	n/k'm꞊énk꞊xn

References

Thompson at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Thompson". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Thompson, Lawrence C.; Thompson, M. Terry (1992). The Thompson Language. University of Montana Press.
Koch, Karsten A. (2011). "A Phonetic Study of Intonation and Focus in Nłeʔkepmxcin (Thompson River Salish)". Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. pp. 111–143. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0137-3_6. ISBN 978-94-007-0136-6.
"Nłeʔkepmxcin - Nlha7kápmx Thompson". Retrieved 2017-06-15.
Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 117.
Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 64.
Haag, Marcia (October 1998). "Word-Level Evidence for Lexical Categories in Salishan Languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 64 (4): 379–393. doi:10.1086/466367.
Koch, Karsten; Matthewson, Lisa (2009). "The Lexical category debate in Salish and its relevance for Tagalog". Theoretical Linguistics. 35 (1): 125–137. doi:10.1515/thli.2009.007.

External links

Native.Languages.org entry
Nlekepmxcin keyboard from languagegeek.com
Human rights plaque in Nlha7kápmx language (archive of SchoolNet page)
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Nlaka'pamux or Thompson

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[e21-1] Thompson at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)

[Glottolog-2] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Thompson". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Thompson_Thompson-3] Thompson, Lawrence C.; Thompson, M. Terry (1992). The Thompson Language. University of Montana Press.

[4] Koch, Karsten A. (2011). "A Phonetic Study of Intonation and Focus in Nłeʔkepmxcin (Thompson River Salish)". Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. pp. 111–143. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0137-3_6. ISBN 978-94-007-0136-6.

[5] "Nłeʔkepmxcin - Nlha7kápmx Thompson". Retrieved 2017-06-15.

[Campbell_American-6] Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 117.

[Mithun_Languages-7] Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 64.

[Haag_Word-8] Haag, Marcia (October 1998). "Word-Level Evidence for Lexical Categories in Salishan Languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 64 (4): 379–393. doi:10.1086/466367.

[9] Koch, Karsten; Matthewson, Lisa (2009). "The Lexical category debate in Salish and its relevance for Tagalog". Theoretical Linguistics. 35 (1): 125–137. doi:10.1515/thli.2009.007.