View source for Social:Tsimshianic languages

{{Short description|Endangered language family of British Columbia and Alaska}}
{{Infobox language family
  |name=Tsimshianic
  |altname=Tsmksian
  |region=British Columbia, [[Earth:Alaska|Alaska]]
  |ethnicity=Tsimshian
  |familycolor=American
  |fam1=Penutian ?
  |glotto=tsim1258
  |glottorefname=Tsimshian
  |child1=Maritime Tsimshian
  |child2=Nass–Gitksan
  |map=Tsimshianic langs.png
  |mapcaption=Pre-contact distribution of Tsimshianic languages
}}

The '''Tsimshianic''' languages are a [[Social:Language family|family]] of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in Southeast [[Earth:Alaska|Alaska]] on Annette Island and Ketchikan. All Tsimshianic languages are endangered, some with only around 400 speakers. Only around 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|m|ʃ|i|ən}} population in Canada still speak a Tsimshian language;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2006&APATH=3&PID=89149&THEME=73&PTYPE=88971&VID=0&GK=NA&GC=99&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0&METH=0&S=1 |title=Statistics Canada 2006 |access-date=2008-03-09 |archive-date=2019-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222151920/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2006&APATH=3&PID=89149&THEME=73&PTYPE=88971&VID=0&GK=NA&GC=99&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0&METH=0&S=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak Coast Tsimshian.<ref name="anlc">Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/ts.html "Tsimshian."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501142533/http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/ts.html |date=2007-05-01 }} [[Organization:University of Alaska Fairbanks|University of Alaska Fairbanks]]. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.</ref><ref name="ethnologue">Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.). (2005). [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tsi "Tsimshian."] [http://www.ethnologue.com/ ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'', 15th ed. (online version).] Dallas, TX: SIL International Retrieved on 2007-04-11.</ref> Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an independent language family, with four main languages: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisg̱a’a, and Gitksan.<ref name="anhc">Alaska Native Heritage Center. (2000). [http://www.alaskanative.net/38.asp "Eyak, Haida, Tlingit & Tsimshian."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070528061806/http://www.alaskanative.net/38.asp |date=2007-05-28 }} Retrieved on 2007-04-11.</ref>

The Tsimshianic languages were included by Edward Sapir in his [[Social:Penutian languages|Penutian]] hypothesis, which is currently not widely accepted, at least in its full form. The Penutian connections of Tsimshianic have been reevaluated by Marie-Lucie Tarpent, who finds the idea probable,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tarpent|first1=Marie-Lucie|title=Tsimshianic and Penutian: Problems, Methods, Results, and Implications|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1997|volume=63|issue=1|pages=65–112|doi=10.1086/466314|jstor=1265865|s2cid=145019037 }}</ref> though others hold that the Tsimshianic family is not closely related to any other North American language.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bicevskis|first1=Katie|last2=Davis|first2=Henry|last3=Matthewson|first3=Lisa|editor1-last=Paperno|editor1-first=Denis|editor2-last=Keenan|editor2-first=Edward L.|title=Handbook of Quantifiers in Natural Language|date=2017|publisher=Springer|page=282|chapter=Quantification in Gitksan|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44330-0_6|volume=II|quote=Though Tsimshianic is unmistakably part of the central northwest coastal Sprachbund (Beck 2002), no convincing evidence has been forthcoming for a genetic relationship between it and any other language family, in spite of persistent attempts to lump the family into the hypothetical Penutian stock, whose other members are found far to the south in Oregon and California (see for example Sapir 1921 and Tarpent 1997).|series=Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy|isbn=978-3-319-44328-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Jason|title=Gitksan Phonotactics|date=2010|publisher=Lincom Europa|location=Munich|isbn=978-3-89586-589-3|page=5|quote=While the Tsimshianic language family is considered by some to be an isolate, others have considered it to be a member of a much larger stock. In particular, Sapir (1921) classified Tsimshianic as a part of the Penutian stock. More recently, DeLancey et al. (1988) and Tarpent (1996, 1997) have re-argued this point, suggesting that Tsimshianic is indeed a Penutian language. These authors point to morphological, phonemic, and lexical correspondences to make this claim. However, the major problems that have been expressed in the literature about the Penutian stock, as well as the problems with Tsimshianic as a part of that stock (see the discussion in Rigsby 1986, as well as Campbell 1997 for a general overview) cast doubt on this relationship. I take the conservative position that the Tsimshianic family is an isolate, and not related to the Penutian stock, or any other hypothesized stocks, though nothing in this work hinges on that position.}}</ref>

==Family division==
[[File:Tsimshianic_map.svg|thumb|Map of the historical distribution of the Tsimshianic languages in British Columbia and Alaska, with the labels of Nisg'a and Gitxsan reversed]]
Tsimshianic consists of 4 [[Social:Variety (linguistics)|lect]]s:

{{tree list}}
* '''Tsimshianic'''
** '''Tsimshian''' (also known as Maritime Tsimshianic, Lower Tsimshian, Northern Tsimshian)
*** Coast Tsimshian (also known as Tsimshian proper, Sm'algyax̣, Sm'algax)
*** Southern Tsimshian (also known as Sgüüx̣s, Ski:xs, Old Klemtu) {{extinct}}
** '''Nass–Gitksan''' (also known as Interior Tsimshianic, Inland Tsimshianic)
*** Nisga’a (also known as Nisqa’a, Nisg̱a’a, Nishga, Nisgha, Niska, Nass, Nishka)
*** Gitksan (also known as Gitxsan, Gitksanimx̣)
{{tree list/end}}

Coast Tsimshian is spoken along the lower Skeena River in Northwestern British Columbia, on some neighbouring islands, and to the north at New Metlakatla, Alaska. Southern Tsimshian was spoken on an island quite far south of the Skeena River in the village of Klemtu; however, it became extinct in 2013 with the death of the last speaker. Nisga’a is spoken along the Nass River. Gitksan is spoken along the Upper Skeena River around Hazelton and other areas.

Nisga’a and Gitksan are very closely related and are usually considered [[Social:Dialect|dialect]]s of the same language by linguists. However, speakers from both groups consider themselves ethnically separate from each other and from the Tsimshian and thus consider Nisga’a and Gitksan to be separate languages. Coast and Southern Tsimshian are also often regarded as dialects of the same language.

As of 2023, Tsimshian courses are available at the [[Organization:University of Alaska Southeast|University of Alaska Southeast]].<ref name="uas-catalog">{{Cite web |title=Alaska Languages (AKL) |url=https://catalog.uas.alaska.edu/course-descriptions/akl/ |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=University of Alaska Southeast Academic Catalog}}</ref>

== Phonology ==
Consonantal inventory of Proto-Tsimshian:<ref>Tarpent, 1997, p. 70</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|- style="line-height: 1.1em;"
! colspan="2" |
! Labial
! colspan="2"| Dental
! Palatal
! Velar
! Labio-<br />velar
! Uvular
! Labio-<br />uvular
! Glottal
|-
! rowspan="2" | Non-continuous<br /> obstruent
! <small>simple</small>
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*p}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*t}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*ts}}
|
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*k}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*kʷ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*q}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*qʷ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*ʔ, *ʔʷ}}
|-
! <small>glottalized</small>
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*pʼ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*tʼ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*tsʼ}}
|
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*kʼ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*kʷʼ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*qʼ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*qʷʼ}}
|
|-
! colspan="2"| Fricative
| 
| colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*s, *ɬ}}
|  
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*x}} ||
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*χ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*χʷ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*h, *hʷ}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |Approximant
! <small>simple</small>
| 
| colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*l}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*j}} ||  
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*w}} ||  ||  ||
|-
! <small>glottalized</small>
| 
| colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*lˀ}}
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*jˀ}} ||  
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*wˀ}} ||  ||  ||
|-
! rowspan="2" |Nasal
! <small>simple</small>
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*m}}
| colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*n}}
|  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
|-
! <small>glottalized</small>
| style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*mˀ}}
| colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;"|{{IPA|*nˀ}}
|  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
|}

==See also==

* Tsimshian

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Boas, Franz. (1902). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LdY_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA33 Tsimshian Texts].'' Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 27.
* Boas, Franz. (1911). "Tsimshian." ''Handbook of American Indian Languages'' Bulletin No. 40, part I, pp.&nbsp;287–422.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-23228-7}} (hbk).
* Tarpent, Marie-Lucie. (1997). "Tsimshianic and Penutian: Problems, Methods, Results, and Implications." ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 63.52-244.

==External links==
* [http://www.ydli.org/bcother/bclist.htm#tsim Tsimshianic languages] <small>(YDLI)</small>
* [http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/images/map2.jpg map of Northwest Coast First Nations] (including Tsimshian and Nisga’a)
* [http://www.kitsumkalum.bc.ca/language.html Sm'algyax – "The Real Language"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060505161340/http://www.kitsumkalum.bc.ca/language.html |date=2006-05-05 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401144447/http://www.dumbaaldum.org/ Dum Baal-dum]
* [http://www.sealaskaheritage.org/ Sealaska Heritage Institute]
* [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Canada/tsimshian.htm A Zimshian Version of Portions of the Book of Common Prayer (1882)] translated by William Ridley
* [http://www.ydli.org/biblios/coasbib.htm Bibliography of Materials on the Coast Tsimshian Language]  <small>(YDLI)</small>
* [http://www.ydli.org/biblios/soubib.htm Bibliography of Materials on the South Tsimshian Language] <small>(YDLI)</small>
* [http://www.ydli.org/biblios/gitbib.htm Bibliography of Materials on the Gitksan Language] <small>(YDLI)</small>
* [http://www.ydli.org/biblios/nisbib.htm Bibliography of Materials on the Nisga'a Language] <small>(YDLI)</small>
* [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/229 Tsimshian] ([[Social:Intercontinental Dictionary Series|Intercontinental Dictionary Series]])

{{Clear}}
{{Language families}}

[[Category:Language families]]

{{Sourceattribution|Tsimshianic languages}}