Tsilhqotʼin language

Tŝilhqóx / Nen
"Ochre River"/"Land"
Tŝilhqóx / Nen; "Ochre River"/"Land"
People	Nenqayni (Tŝilhqotʼin)
Language	Nenqayni Ch'ih (Tŝilhqotʼin Chʼih)
Country	Tŝilhqotʼin Nen

Chilcotin
Chilcotin
Tŝinlhqutʼin
Pronunciation	[ts̠ˤʰᵊĩɬqʰotʼin]
Native to	Chilcotin Country, Central Interior of British Columbia
Ethnicity	4,350 Tsilhqotʼin (2014, FPCC)
Native speakers	860 (2014, FPCC)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Chilcotin; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	clc
Glottolog	chil1280
ELP	Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin)
	Chilcotin is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Nenqayni Chʼih (lit. "the Native way") (also Chilcotin, Tŝilhqotʼin, Tsilhqotʼin, Tsilhqútʼin) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqotʼin people.

The name Chilcotin is derived from the Chilcotin name for themselves: Tŝilhqotʼin literally "people of the red ochre river".

Phonology

Consonants

Chilcotin has 47 consonants:

		Bilabial	Dental			Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		Bilabial	central	sibilant	lateral	Alveolar	Palatal	plain	labial	plain	labial	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n̪ ⟨n⟩
Occlusive	tenuis	p ⟨b⟩	t̪ ⟨d⟩	ts̪ ⟨dz⟩	tɬ ⟨dl⟩	ts̱ˤ ⟨dẑ⟩	tʃ ⟨j⟩	k ⟨g⟩	kʷ ⟨gw⟩	q ⟨gg⟩	qʷ ⟨ggw⟩	ʔ ⟨ʔ⟩
	aspirated	pʰ ⟨p⟩	t̪ʰ ⟨t⟩	ts̪ʰ ⟨ts⟩	tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩	ts̱ˤʰ ⟨tŝ⟩	tʃʰ ⟨ch⟩	kʰ ⟨k⟩	kʷʰ ⟨kw⟩	qʰ ⟨q⟩	qʷʰ ⟨qw⟩
	ejective		t̪ʼ ⟨tʼ⟩	ts̪ʼ ⟨tsʼ⟩	tɬʼ ⟨tlʼ⟩	ts̱ˤʼ ⟨tŝʼ⟩	tʃʼ ⟨chʼ⟩	kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kwʼ⟩	qʼ ⟨qʼ⟩	qʷʼ ⟨qwʼ⟩
Continuant	voiceless			s̪ ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨lh⟩	s̱ˤ ⟨ŝ⟩	ç ⟨sh⟩		xʷ ⟨wh⟩	χ ⟨x⟩	χʷ ⟨xw⟩	h ⟨h⟩
Continuant	voiced			z̪ ⟨z⟩	l ⟨l⟩	ẕˤ ⟨ẑ⟩	j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩	ʁ ⟨r⟩	ʁʷ ⟨rw⟩

Like many other Athabaskan languages, Chilcotin does not have a contrast between fricatives and approximants.
The alveolar series is pharyngealized.
Dentals and alveolars:
- Both Krauss (1975) and Cook (1993) describe the dental and alveolar as being essentially identical in articulation, postdental, with the only differentiating factor being their different behaviours in the vowel flattening processes (described below).
- Gafos (1999, personal communication with Cook) describes the dental series as apico-laminal denti-alveolar and the alveolar series as lamino-postalveolar.

Vowels

Chilcotin has 6 vowels:

	Front				Back
	tense-long	lax-short	tense-long	lax-short	tense-long	lax-short
High	i ⟨i⟩	ɪ ⟨ɨ⟩			u ⟨u⟩	ʊ ⟨o⟩
Low			æ ⟨a⟩	ɛ ⟨e⟩

Chilcotin has both tense and lax vowel phonemes. Additionally, tense vowels may become lax from vowel laxing.

Every given Chilcotin vowel has a number of different phonetic realizations from complex phonological processes (such as nasalization, laxing, flattening). For instance, the vowel /i/ can be variously pronounced [i, ĩ, ɪ, e, ᵊi, ᵊĩ, ᵊɪ].

Tone

Chilcotin is a

tonal language

with two tones: high tone and low tone.

Phonological processes

Chilcotin has vowel flattening and consonant harmony.

areal feature

common in this region of North America. The Chilcotin processes, however, are much more complicated.

Vowel nasalization and laxing

Vowel nasalization is a phonological process by which the phoneme /n/ is nasalizes the preceding vowel. It occurs when the vowel + /n/ sequence is followed by a (tautosyllabic) continuant consonant (such as /ɬ, sˤ, zˤ, ç, j, χ/).

/pinɬ/

→

[pĩɬ]

'trap'

Vowel laxing is a process by which tense vowels (/i, u, æ/) become lax when followed by a syllable-final /h/: the tense and lax distinction is neutralized.

/ʔɛstɬʼuh/	→	[ʔɛstɬʼʊh]		'I'm knitting'		(u → ʊ)
/sɛjæh/	→	[sɛjɛh]		'my throat'		(æ → ɛ)

Vowel flattening

Chilcotin has a type of

Assimilation

is both progressive and regressive.

Chilcotin consonants can be grouped into three categories: neutral, sharp, and flat.

Neutral	Sharp	Flat
p, pʰ, m t, tʰ, tʼ, n tɬ, tɬʰ, tɬʼ, ɬ, l tʃ, tʃʰ, tʃʼ, ç, j ʔ, h	ts, tsʰ, tsʼ, s, z k, kʰ, kʼ kʷ, kʷʰ, kʼʷ, xʷ, w	sˤ-series:	tsˤ, tsʰˤ, tsʼˤ, sˤ, zˤ
	ts, tsʰ, tsʼ, s, z k, kʰ, kʼ kʷ, kʷʰ, kʼʷ, xʷ, w	q-series:	q, qʰ, qʼ, χ, ʁ qʷ, qʷʰ, qʼʷ, χʷ, ʁʷ

Flat consonants trigger vowel flattening.
Sharp consonants block vowel flattening.
Neutral consonants do not affect vowel flattening in any way.

The flat consonants can be further divided into two types:

a sˤ-series (i.e. /tsˤ, tsʰˤ, tsʼˤ/ˌ etc.), and
a q-series (i.e. /q, qʷ, qʰ/ˌ etc.).

The sˤ-series is stronger than the q-series by affecting vowels farther away.

This table shows both unaffected vowels and flattened vowels:

unaffected vowel	flattened vowel
i	ᵊi or e
ɪ	ᵊɪ
u	o
ʊ	ɔ
ɛ	ə
æ	a

The vowel /i/ surfaces as [ᵊi] if after a flat consonant and as [e] before a flat consonant:

/sˤit/	→	[sˤᵊit]		'kinɡfisher'		(sˤ flattens i → ᵊi)
/nisˤtsˤun/	→	[nesˤtsˤon]		'owl'		(sˤ flattens i → e)

The progressive and regressive flattening processes are described below.

Progressive flattening

In the progressive (left-to-right) flattening, the q-series consonants affect only the immediately following vowel:

/ʁitʰi/	→	[ʁᵊitʰi]		'I slept'		(ʁ flattens i → ᵊi)
/qʰænɪç/	→	[qʰanɪç]		'spoon'		(qʰ flattens æ → a)

Like the q-series, the stronger sˤ-series consonants affects the immediately following vowel. However, it affects the vowel in the following syllable as well if the first flattened vowel is a lax vowel. If the first flattened is tense, the vowel of the following syllable is not flattened.

/sˤɛɬ.tʰin/	→	[sˤəɬ.tʰᵊin]		'he's comatose'		(sˤ flattens both ɛ → ə, i → ᵊi )
/sˤi.tʰin/	→	[sˤᵊi.tʰin]		'I'm sleeping'		(sˤ flattens first i → ᵊi, but not second i: *sˤᵊitʰᵊin)

Thus, the neutral consonants are transparent in the flattening process. In the first word /sˤɛɬ.tʰin/ 'he's comatose', /sˤ/ flattens the /ɛ/ of the first syllable to [ə] and the /i/ of the second syllable to [ᵊi]. In the word /sˤi.tʰin/ 'I'm sleeping', /sˤ/ flattens /i/ to [ᵊi]. Since, however, the vowel of the first syllable is /i/, which is a tense vowel, the /sˤ/ cannot flatten the /i/ of the second syllable.

The sharp consonants, however, block the progressive flattening caused by the sˤ-series:

/tizˤ.kʼɛn/	→	[tezˤ.kʼɛn]		'it's burning'		(flattening of ɛ is blocked by kʼ: *tezˤkʼən)
/sˤɛ.kɛn/	→	[sˤə.kɛn]		'it's dry'		(flattening of ɛ is blocked by k: *sˤəkən)

Regressive flattening

In regressive (right-to-left) harmony, the q-series flattens the preceding vowel.

/ʔælæχ/	→	[ʔælaχ]		'I made it'		(χ flattens æ → a)
/junɛqʰæt/	→	[junəqʰat]		'he's slappinɡ him'		(qʰ flattens ɛ → ə)

The regressive (right-to-left) harmony of the sˤ-series, however, is much stronger than the progressive harmony. The consonants flatten all preceding vowels in a word:

/kunizˤ/	→	[konezˤ]	'it is lonɡ'	(zˤ flattens all vowels, both i → e, u → o)
/kʷɛtɛkuljúzˤ/	→	[kʷətəkoljózˤ]	'he is rich'	(zˤ flattens all vowels, ɛ → ə, u → o)
/nækʷɛnitsˤɛ́sˤ/	→	[nakʷənetsˤə́sˤ]	'fire's gone out'	(tsˤ, sˤ flatten all vowels, æ → a, ɛ → ə)