| Nuu-chah-nulth | |
| Also Known As: | Nootka |
| Nativename: | nuučaan̓uɫ, T̓aat̓aaqsapa |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[nuːt͡ʃaːnˀuɬ]/ |
| States: | Canada |
| Region: | West coast of Vancouver Island, from Barkley Sound to Quatsino Sound, British Columbia |
| Ethnicity: | 7,680 Nuu-chah-nulth (2014, FPCC) |
| Speakers: | , |
| Date: | 2014, FPCC(280 native speakers and 665 learners in 2021 [1]) |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Wakashan |
| Fam2: | Southern |
| Iso3: | nuk |
| Glotto: | nuuc1236 |
| Glottorefname: | Nuu-chah-nulth |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Lang Status 40-SE.svg |
Nuu-chah-nulth (nuučaan̓uɫ),[2] Nootka,[3] is a Wakashan language in the Pacific Northwest of North America on the west coast of Vancouver Island, from Barkley Sound to Quatsino Sound in British Columbia by the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. Nuu-chah-nulth is a Southern Wakashan language related to Nitinaht and Makah.
It is the first language of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast to have documentary written materials describing it. In the 1780s, Captains Vancouver, Quadra, and other European explorers and traders frequented Nootka Sound and the other Nuu-chah-nulth communities, making reports of their voyages. From 1803–1805 John R. Jewitt, an English blacksmith, was held captive by chief Maquinna at Nootka Sound. He made an effort to learn the language, and in 1815 published a memoir with a brief glossary of its terms.
The provenance of the term "Nuu-chah-nulth", meaning "along the outside [of Vancouver Island]" dates from the 1970s, when the various groups of speakers of this language joined together, disliking the term "Nootka" (which means "go around" and was mistakenly understood to be the name of a place, which was actually called Yuquot). The name given by earlier sources for this language is Tahkaht; that name was used also to refer to themselves (the root aht means "people").[4]
The 35 consonants of Nuu-chah-nulth:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | sibilant | lateral | plain | labial | plain | labial | ||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | plain | pronounced as /link/ (p) | pronounced as /link/ (t) | pronounced as /link/ (c) | pronounced as /link/ (ƛ) | pronounced as /link/ (č) | pronounced as /link/ (k) | pronounced as /kʷ/ (kʷ) | pronounced as /link/ (q) | pronounced as /qʷ/ (qʷ) | pronounced as /link/ (ʔ) | |
| ejective | pronounced as /link/ (p̓) | pronounced as /link/ (t̓) | pronounced as /link/ (c̓) | pronounced as /link/ (ƛ̓) | pronounced as /link/ (č̓) | pronounced as /link/ (k̓) | pronounced as /kʷʼ/ (k̓ʷ) | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ (s) | pronounced as /link/ (ł) | pronounced as /link/ (š) | pronounced as /link/ (x) | pronounced as /xʷ/ (xʷ) | pronounced as /link/ (x̣) | pronounced as /χʷ/ (x̣ʷ) | pronounced as /link/ (ḥ) | pronounced as /link/ (h) | |||
| Sonorant | plain | pronounced as /link/ (m) | pronounced as /link/ (n) | pronounced as /link/ (y) | pronounced as /link/ (w) | pronounced as /link/ (ʕ) | ||||||
| glottalized | pronounced as /ˀm/ (m̓) | pronounced as /ˀn/ (n̓) | pronounced as /ˀj/ (y̓) | pronounced as /ˀw/ (w̓) | ||||||||
The pharyngeal consonants developed from mergers of uvular sounds; pronounced as //ħ// derives from a merger of pronounced as //χ// and pronounced as //χʷ// (which are now comparatively rare) while pronounced as //ʕ// came about from a merger of pronounced as //qʼ// and pronounced as //qʷʼ// (which are now absent from the language).
Nuu-chah-nulth vowels are influenced by surrounding consonants with certain "back" consonants conditioning lower, more back vowel allophones.
| +Vowels | Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| long | short | long | short | long | short | ||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Mid1 | (pronounced as /ink/) | (pronounced as /ink/) | (pronounced as /ink/) | ||||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
The mid vowels pronounced as /[ɛː]/ and pronounced as /[ɔː]/ appear in vocative forms and in ceremonial expressions. pronounced as /[ə]/ is a possible realization of pronounced as //a// after a glottalized sonorant.
In the environment of glottalized resonants as well as ejective and pharyngeal consonants, vowels can be "laryngealized" which often means creaky voice.
In general, syllable weight determines stress placement; short vowels followed by non-glottalized consonants and long vowels are heavy. In sequences where there are no heavy syllables or only heavy syllables, the first syllable is stressed.
Nuu-chah-nulth has phonemic short and long vowels. Traditionally, a third class of vowels, known as "variable length" vowels, is recognized. These are vowels that are long when they are found within the first two syllables of a word, and short elsewhere.
Nuu-chah nulth is a polysynthetic language with VSO word order.
A clause in Nuu-chah-nulth must consist of at least a predicate. Affixes can be appended to those clauses to signify numerous grammatical categories, such as mood, aspect or tense.
Aspects in Nuu-chah-nulth help specify an action's extension over time and its relation to other events. Up to 7 aspects can be distinguished:[5]
| Momentaneous | –(C)iƛ, –uƛ | |
| Inceptive | –°ačiƛ, –iičiƛ | |
| Durative | –(ʔ)ak, –(ʔ)uk, –ḥiˑ | |
| Continuative | –(y)aˑ | |
| Graduative | [lengthens the stem's first vowel and shortens its second one] | |
| Repetitive | –ː(ƛ)–ː(y)a | |
| Iterative | R–š, –ł, –ḥ |
Tense can be marked using affixes (marked with a dash) and clitics (marked with an equal sign).
Nuu-chah-nulth distinguishes near future and general future:
| =ʔaqƛ, =ʔaːqƛ | –w̓itas, –w̓its |
Past tense can be marked with the =mit clitic that can itself take different forms depending on the environment and speaker's dialect:
| Consonant–vowel stem | =mi(t), =nit | waa → waamit | said | ||
| Long vowel, /m/, /n/ | =mi(t), =nt | saasin → saasinmit | dead hummingbird | ||
| Short vowel | =imt, =int, =mi(t), =um(t) | ciiqciiqa → ciiqciiqimt | spoke | ||
| Consonant | =it, =mi(t), =in(t) | wiikapuƛ → wiikapuƛit | passed away | ||
| =!ap | =mi(t), =in(t), =!amit | hił=!ap → hiłʔamit | hosted at | ||
| =!at | =mi(t), =in(t), =!aːnit, = | anit | waa=!at → waaʔaanit | was told |
|---|
Grammatical mood in Nuu-chah-nulth lets the speaker express the attitude towards what they're saying and how did they get presented information. Nuu-chah-nulth's moods are:
| Absolutive | =∅ | |
| Indicative | =maˑ | |
| Assertive | =ʔiˑš | |
| Indefinite relative | =(y)iː, =(y)iˑ | |
| Definite relative | =ʔiˑtq, =ʔiˑq | |
| Subordinate | =qaˑ | |
| Dubitative relative | =(w)uːsi | |
| Conditional | =quː, =quˑ | |
| Quotative | =waˑʔiš, =weˑʔin | |
| Inferential | =čaˑʕaš | |
| Dubitative | =qaˑča | |
| Purposive | =!eeʔit(a), = | aːḥi |
|---|---|---|
| Interrogative | =ḥaˑ, =ḥ | |
| Imperative | =!iˑ | |
| Future imperative | =!im, = | um |
| go–imperative | =čiˑ | |
| come–imperative | =!iˑk | |
| Article | =ʔiˑ | |
| Quotative article | =čaˑ |
The Nuu-chah-nulth language contributed much of the vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon. It is thought that oceanic commerce and exchanges between the Nuu-chah-nulth and other Southern Wakashan speakers with the Chinookan-speaking peoples of the lower Columbia River led to the foundations of the trade jargon that became known as Chinook. Nootkan words in Chinook Jargon include hiyu ("many"), from Nuu-chah-nulth for "ten", siah ("far"), from the Nuu-chah-nulth for "sky".
A dictionary of the language, with some 7,500 entries, was created after 15 years of research. It is based on both work with current speakers and notes from linguist Edward Sapir, taken almost a century ago. The dictionary, however, is a subject of controversy, with a number of Nuu-chah-nulth elders questioning the author's right to disclose their language.
Nuu-chah-nulth has 12 different dialects:
Nuuchahnulth had a name for each place within their traditional territory. These are just a few still used to this day:
Using data from the 2021 census, Statistics Canada reported that 665 individuals could conduct a conversation in Nuu-chah-nulth. This represents a 23% increase over the 2016 census. The total included 280 speakers who reported the language as a mother tongue.[8]
A Ehattesaht iPhone app was released in January 2012.[9] An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at the First Voices Ehattesaht Nuchatlaht Community Portal.[10]