Lillooet (language)
Lillooet (also Lilloet , St'at'imc ) is an indigenous language of North America that belongs to the Inland Salish subgroup of the Salish languages . It is spoken by about 200 St'at'imc (formerly known as Lillooet or Lilwat ) in the Canadian province of British Columbia and is divided into two dialect groups:
- St'at'imcets , the dialect of the Upper St'at'imc ( Upper Lillooet or Fraser River Lillooet ) in the vicinity of the present-day town of Lillooet on the Fraser River , who called themselves STLA'-tlei-mu-wh and
- Ucwalmícwts (pronounced: 'oo-kwal-MEWK'), the dialect of the Lower St'at'imc ( Lower Lillooet or Mount Currie Lillooet , often simply Lillooet ) in the area around today's Mount Currie, in the Pemberton Valley and south to Skookumchuck who call themselves LEEL'-wat-OOL ' (' the true people ',' the true Lillooet ') (from which the words' Lillooet' and 'Lilwat' were derived)
Phonology
Lilloet has a large phoneme inventory typical of Salish languages :
Consonants
| bilabial | dental | post-alveolar | velar | post-velar | glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral |
not labial |
labialized |
not labial |
labialized | |||||
| Plosive sound | plain | p | t | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | |||
| ejective | p ' | k ' | kʷ ' | q ' | qʷ ' | ʔ | ||||
| Affrict | plain | ʧ | ||||||||
| ejective | tɬ ' | ʧ ' | ||||||||
| retracted | ʦˠ | |||||||||
| Fricative | plain | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | |||
| retracted | sˠ | |||||||||
| nasal | plain | m | n | |||||||
| glottal | m ' | n ' | ||||||||
| Approximant | plain | z | l | j | ɣ | ɣʷ | ʕ | ʕʷ | H | |
| glottal | z ' | l ' | j ' | ɣ ' | ɣʷ ' | ʕ ' | ʕʷ ' | |||
| retracted | lˠ | |||||||||
| retracted, glottal | lˠ ' | |||||||||
- The phoneme / z / is implemented as [ð] or [z̪] depending on the dialect .
Vowels
| front | back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| not retracted |
retracted | not retracted |
retracted | not retracted |
retracted | |
| closed | e [e] | ẹ [ɛ] | o [o] | ọ [ɔ] | ||
| medium | ə [ə] | ə̣ [ʌ] | ||||
| open | a [ɛ] | ạ [a] | ||||
- / ẹ / and / a / = [ɛ].
Phonological processes
There are complex morphophonological processes as well as vowel and consonant harmony at the morpheme boundaries :
| / -ɣʷél'x / | |||||||
| ama 'good' | / ʔáma / | + / -ɣʷél'x / | → | [ʔamaɣʷél'x] | amagwil ' c ' to get better ' | ||
| qaoḻ 'bad' | / qạ́lˠ / | + / -ɣʷél'x / | → | [qạlˠɣʷẹ́lˠ'x] | qaoḻgwiiḻ'c 'to get spoiled' |
orthography
| phoneme | orthography | phoneme | orthography |
| Vowels | |||
| / e / | i | / ẹ / | ii |
| /O/ | u | /O/ | O |
| / ə / | e | / ə̣ / | v |
| / a / | a | / ạ / | ao |
| Consonants | |||
| / p / | p | / m / | m |
| / p '/ | p̓ | / m '/ | m̓ |
| / t / | t | / n / | n |
| / tɬ '/ | t ' | / n '/ | n̓ |
| / ʧ / | ts | / ɬ / | lh |
| / ʦˠ / | ts | / z / | z |
| / ʧ '/ | ts̓ | / z '/ | z̓ |
| / k / | k | / ɣ / | r |
| / kʷ / | kw | / ɣʷ / | w |
| / k '/ | k̓ | / ɣ '/ | r̓ |
| / kʷ '/ | k̓w | / ɣʷ '/ | w̓ |
| / q / | q | / ʕ / | G |
| / qʷ / | qw | / ʕʷ / | gw |
| / q '/ | q̓ | / ʕ '/ | G |
| / qʷ '/ | q̓w | / ʕʷ '/ | g̓w |
| / ʔ / | 7th | /H/ | H |
| / ʃ / | s | / y / | y |
| / sˠ / | s̱ | / j '/ | y̓ |
| / x / | c | / l / | l |
| / xʷ / | cw | / lˠ / | ḻ |
| / χ / | xw | / l '/ | l ' |
| / χʷ / | xw | / lˠ '/ | ḻ ' |
Text example
St'at'imcets:
Nilh aylh lts7a sMáma ti húz̓a qweqwl'el'tmínan. N̓as ku7 ámlec áku7 tsípunsa. Nilh t'u7 st'áksas ti xláka7sa. Tsicw áku7, nilh t'u7 ses wa7, kwánas et7ú i sqáwtsa. Wa7 ku7 t'u7 áti7 xílem, t'ak ku7 knáti7 ti pú7y̓acwa. Nilh ku7 t'u7 skwánas, lip̓in̓ás ku7. Nilh ku7 t'u7 aylh stsuts: "Wa7 nalh aylh láti7 kapv́ta!" Nilh ku7 t'u7 aylh sklhaka7mínas ku7 láti7 ti sqáwtsa cwilhá k̓a, nao7q̓ spawts ti kwanensása ...
literature
- Lillooet Tribal Council: Introducing St'at'imcets (Fraser River Dialect). A primer. Lillooet Tribal Council, Lillooet 1993.
- Jan van Eijk: Cuystwí malh ucwalmícwts. = Teach yourself Lillooet. Ucwalmícwts curriculum for advanced learners. Ts'zil Publishing House, Mount Currie 1981, ISBN 0-920938-02-7 .
- Jan van Eijk: The Lillooet language. Phonology, morphology, syntax. Amsterdam 1985, (Amsterdam, Universiteit van Amsterdam, dissertation, 1985).
- Jan van Eijk: Lillooet forms for 'pretending' and 'acting like'. In: International Journal of American Linguistics. Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 106-110, JSTOR 1265115 .
- Jan van Eijk: Intransitivity, transitivity and control in Lillooet Salish. In Harm Pinkster , Inge Genee (ed.): Unity in diversity. Papers presented to Simon C. Dik on his 50th birthday. Foris Publications, Dordrecht et al. 1990, ISBN 90-6765-511-2 , pp. 47-64.
- Jan van Eijk: CVC reduplication and infixation in Lillooet. In: Anthony Mattina, Timothy Montler (Ed.): American Indian linguistics and ethnography in honor of Laurence C. Thompson (= University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics. 10). University of Montana, Missoula MT 1993, ISBN 1-879763-50-8 , pp. 317-326.
- Jan van Eijk: The Lillooet language. Phonology, morphology, syntax. UBC Press, Vancouver 1997, ISBN 0-7748-0625-7 (Revised version of van Eijk 1985).
- Jan Van Eijk, Lorna Williams (eds.): Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts. = Lillooet legends and stories. Ts'zil Publishing House, Mount Currie 1981, ISBN 0-920938-03-5 .
- Marie Joseph: Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts. Ucwalmícwts curriculum for beginners. Ts'zil Publishing House, Mount Currie 1979, ISBN 0-920938-00-0 .
- Lorna Williams, Jan Van Eijk, Gordon Turner (Eds.): Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for intermediates. Ts'zil Publishing House, Mount Currie 1979, ISBN 0-920938-01-9 .