| Moses-Columbia | |
| Also Known As: | Columbia-Wenatchi |
| Nativename: | Nxaʔamxcín |
| States: | United States of America |
| Region: | northern Idaho, eastern Washington |
| Ethnicity: | 230 (2000 census) |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Salishan |
| Fam2: | Interior Salish |
| Fam3: | Southern |
| Dia1: | Columbian † |
| Dia2: | Wenatchi † |
| Iso3: | col |
| Glotto: | colu1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Columbia-Wenatchi |
| Map: | Lang Status 01-EX.svg |
| Extinct: | May 2, 2023, with the death of Pauline Stensgar |
Moses-Columbia, or Columbia-Wenatchi (in Moses-Columbia: Nxaʔamxcín), is an extinct Southern Interior Salish language, also known as Nxaảmxcín. Speakers traditionally lived in the Colville Indian Reservation. The Columbia people were followers of Chief Moses.
There were two dialects, Columbia (Sinkiuse, Columbian) and Wenatchi (Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan). Wenatchi was the heritage language of the Wenatchi, Chelan, and Entiat tribes, Columbian of the Sinkiuse-Columbia.
Pauline Stensgar, who died on May 2, 2023 at age 96, is reported to have been the last known fully fluent speaker.[1]
Here is a Nxaʔamxcín sample word
Phonological inventory of the Columbia-Wenatchi dialect:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | sibilant | lateral | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| glottalized | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Sonorant | plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| glottalized | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Trill | plain | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||||
| glottalized | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||||
The three vowels in Moses-Columbia are /i/, /a/, /u/. They are sometimes transcribed as [e]; /i/, [o]; /u/, and [æ]; /a/, and could also tend to sound unstressed, almost as a schwa sound, /ə/.