| Chilcotin | |
| Nativename: | Tŝinlhqutʼin |
| States: | Canada |
| Region: | Chilcotin Country, Central Interior of British Columbia |
| Ethnicity: | 4,350 Tsilhqotʼin (2014, FPCC) |
| Speakers: | 860 |
| Date: | 2014, FPCC |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Dené-Yeniseian |
| Fam2: | Na-Dené |
| Fam3: | Athabaskan |
| Fam4: | Northern Athabaskan |
| Iso3: | clc |
| Glotto: | chil1280 |
| Glottorefname: | Chilcotin-Nicola |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Lang Status 60-DE.svg |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[ts̠ˤʰᵊĩɬqʰotʼin]/ |
| Root: | Tŝilhqóx / Nen "Ochre River"/"Land" |
| People: | Nenqayni[1] (Tŝilhqotʼin) |
| Language: | Nenqayni Ch'ih (Tŝilhqotʼin Chʼih) |
| Country: | Tŝilhqotʼin Nen |
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".
Chilcotin has 47 consonants:
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | sibilant | lateral | plain | labial | plain | labial | ||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ (m) | pronounced as /link/ (n) | ||||||||||
| Occlusive | tenuis | pronounced as /link/ (b) | pronounced as /link/ (d) | pronounced as /link/ (dz) | pronounced as /link/ (dl) | pronounced as /link/ (dẑ) | pronounced as /link/ (j) | pronounced as /link/ (g) | pronounced as /kʷ/ (gw) | pronounced as /link/ (gg) | pronounced as /qʷ/ (ggw) | pronounced as /link/ (ʔ) |
| aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ (p) | pronounced as /t̪ʰ/ (t) | pronounced as /ts̪ʰ/ (ts) | pronounced as /tɬʰ/ (tl) | pronounced as /ts̱ˤʰ/ (tŝ) | pronounced as /tʃʰ/ (ch) | pronounced as /kʰ/ (k) | pronounced as /kʷʰ/ (kw) | pronounced as /qʰ/ (q) | pronounced as /qʷʰ/ (qw) | ||
| ejective | pronounced as /link/ (tʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (tsʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (tlʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (tŝʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (chʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (kʼ) | pronounced as /kʷʼ/ (kwʼ) | pronounced as /link/ (qʼ) | pronounced as /qʷʼ/ (qwʼ) | |||
| Continuant | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ (s) | pronounced as /link/ (lh) | pronounced as /link/ (ŝ) | pronounced as /link/ (sh) | pronounced as /xʷ/ (wh) | pronounced as /link/ (x) | pronounced as /χʷ/ (xw) | pronounced as /link/ (h) | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ (z) | pronounced as /link/ (l) | pronounced as /link/ (ẑ) | pronounced as /link/ (y) | pronounced as /link/ (w) | pronounced as /link/ (r) | pronounced as /ʁʷ/ (rw) | |||||
Chilcotin has 6 vowels:
| Front | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tense-long | lax-short | tense-long | lax-short | tense-long | lax-short | ||
| High | pronounced as /link/ (i) | pronounced as /link/ (ɨ) | pronounced as /link/ (u) | pronounced as /link/ (o) | |||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ (a) | pronounced as /link/ (e) | |||||
Every given Chilcotin vowel has a number of different phonetic realizations from complex phonological processes (such as nasalization, laxing, flattening). For instance, the vowel pronounced as //i// can be variously pronounced pronounced as /[i, ĩ, ɪ, e, ᵊi, ᵊĩ, ᵊɪ]/.
Chilcotin is a tonal language with two tones: high tone and low tone.
Chilcotin has vowel flattening and consonant harmony. Consonant harmony (sibilant harmony) is rather common in the Athabaskan language family. Vowel flattening is unique to Chilcotin but is similar to phonological processes in other unrelated Interior Salishan languages spoken in the same area, such as Shuswap, Stʼátʼimcets, and Thompson River Salish (and thus was probably borrowed into Chilcotin). That type of harmony is an areal feature common in this region of North America. The Chilcotin processes, however, are much more complicated.
Vowel nasalization is a phonological process by which the phoneme pronounced as //n// is nasalizes the preceding vowel. It occurs when the vowel + pronounced as //n// sequence is followed by a (tautosyllabic) continuant consonant (such as pronounced as //ɬ, sˤ, zˤ, ç, j, χ//).
| /pinɬ/ | → | [pĩɬ] | 'trap' |
Vowel laxing is a process by which tense vowels (pronounced as //i, u, æ//) become lax when followed by a syllable-final pronounced as //h//: the tense and lax distinction is neutralized.
| /ʔɛstɬʼuh/ | → | [ʔɛstɬʼʊh] | 'I'm knitting' | (u → ʊ) | |||
| /sɛjæh/ | → | [sɛjɛh] | 'my throat' | (æ → ɛ) |
Chilcotin has a type of retracted tongue root harmony. Generally, "flat" consonants lower vowels in both directions. Assimilation is both progressive and regressive.
Chilcotin consonants can be grouped into three categories: neutral, sharp, and flat.
| Neutral | Sharp | Flat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| sˤ-series: | tsˤ, tsʰˤ, tsʼˤ, sˤ, zˤ | ||
| q-series: | |||
The flat consonants can be further divided into two types:
The pronounced as /sˤ/-series is stronger than the pronounced as /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 pronounced as //i// surfaces as pronounced as /[ᵊi]/ if after a flat consonant and as pronounced 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.
In the progressive (left-to-right) flattening, the pronounced as /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 pronounced as /q/-series, the stronger pronounced as /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 pronounced as //sˤɛɬ.tʰin// 'he's comatose', pronounced as //sˤ// flattens the pronounced as //ɛ// of the first syllable to pronounced as /[ə]/ and the pronounced as //i// of the second syllable to pronounced as /[ᵊi]/. In the word pronounced as //sˤi.tʰin// 'I'm sleeping', pronounced as //sˤ// flattens pronounced as //i// to pronounced as /[ᵊi]/. Since, however, the vowel of the first syllable is pronounced as //i//, which is a tense vowel, the pronounced as //sˤ// cannot flatten the pronounced as //i// of the second syllable.
The sharp consonants, however, block the progressive flattening caused by the pronounced as /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) |
In regressive (right-to-left) harmony, the pronounced as /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 pronounced as /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) |
Both progressive and regressive flattening processes occur in Chilcotin words:
| /niqʰin/ | → | [neqʰᵊin] | 'we paddled' | ||
| /ʔɛqʰɛn/ | → | [ʔəqʰən] | 'husband' |