Everything about Saanich Linguistics totally explained
Saanich (also
Sənčaθən, written as
SENĆOŦEN in Saanich
orthography) is the language of the
Native American Saanich people. Saanich is a member of a
dialect continuum called
Northern Straits which is a Coast
Salishan language.
North Straits varieties are closely related to the
Klallam language.
Sounds
Vowels
There is considerable variation among the dialects in the mid vowels with /e/ ranging from [e] to [æ] and /ə/ being higher in palatal environments, rounded in labialized environments, and [ʌ] when stressed.
| | Front |
Central |
Back |
| High |
i |
|
|
| Mid |
e |
ə |
|
| Low |
|
a |
|
Consonants
The following table includes all the sounds found in the North Straits dialects. No one dialect includes them all.
The unrounded velar stop /k/ is found only in
loanwords, such as CEPU (
IPA: /kə.ˈpu/) "coat", from
French.
/s̪, ʦ̪, ʼ/ are also written /θ, tθ, ʼ/, although they're not usually
interdental. The uvular nasals /ɴ ɴʼ/ are also written /ŋ ŋʼ/, but they're not velar.
The status of the glottalized
resonants /mʼ nʼ ɴʼ lʼ jʼ wʼ/ isn't agreed upon. Some linguists analyse them as unit
phonemes, others as sequences of a plain resonant and a
glottal stop /ʔ/.
Writing system
The Saanich orthography was created by
Dave Elliot in
1978. It uses only
uppercase letters, with one exception: the letter
s, which marks the third person possessive suffix.
| A |
Á |
Ⱥ |
B |
C |
Ć |
Ȼ |
D |
E |
H |
| /e/ |
/ej/ |
/pʼ/ |
/k/ |
/ʧ/ |
/kʷ/ |
/tʼ/ |
/ə/ |
/h/ |
| I |
Í |
J |
K |
K̴¹ |
Ḵ |
Ḱ |
L |
Ƚ |
M |
| /i/ |
/ǝj ɑj/ |
/ʧʼ/ |
/qʼ/ |
/qʷʼ/ |
/q/ |
/qʷ/ |
/l lʼ/ |
/ɬ/ |
/m mʼ/ |
| N |
Ṉ |
O |
P |
Q |
S |
Ś |
T |
Ⱦ |
Ṯ |
| /n nʼ/ |
/ɴ ɴʼ/ |
/ɑ/ |
/p/ |
/kʷʼ/ |
/s/ |
/ʃ/ |
/t/ |
/ʦ̪ʼ/ |
/tɬʼ/ |
| Ŧ |
U |
W |
W̲ |
X |
X̲ |
Y |
Z |
s |
| /s̪/ |
/ǝw u/ |
/w/ |
/xʷ/ |
/χ/ |
/χʷ/ |
/j jʼ/ |
? |
/s/ |
¹The K with a bar hasn't yet been adopted by Unicode.
The
glottal stop /ʔ/ isn't always indicated, but may be written with a
comma:
,.
Plain and glottalized resonants are not distinguished.
The vowel /e/ is usually written
Á, unless it occurs next to an uvular consonant (/q qʷ qʼ qʷʼ χ χʷ ɴ ɴʷ/), where it's written
A.
Grammar
Metathesis
In Saanich,
metathesis is used as a grammatical devise to indicate "actual"
aspect. The actual aspect is most often translated into English as a
be …-ing progressive. The actual aspect is derived from the "nonactual" verb form by a CV → VC metathesis process (for example consonant metathesizes with vowel).
| T̵X̲ÉT 'shove' (nonactual) |
→ |
T̵ÉX̲T 'shoving' (actual) |
| ṮPÉX̲ 'scatter' (nonactual) |
→ |
ṮÉPX̲ 'scattering' (actual) |
| ȾȽÉQ 'pinch' (nonactual) |
→ |
ȾÉȽQ 'pinching' (actual) |
Further Information
Get more info on 'Saanich Linguistics'.
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