Sahaptian language traditionally spoken in the Northwestern USA
Nez Perce
, also spelled
Nez Perce
or called
nimipuutimt
(alternatively spelled
nimiipuutimt
,
niimiipuutimt
, or
niimi'ipuutimt
), is a
Sahaptian
language related to the several dialects of
Sahaptin
(note the spellings
-ian
vs.
-in
). Nez Perce comes from the French phrase
nez perce
, "pierced nose"; however, Nez Perce, who call themselves
nimiipuu
, meaning "the people", did not pierce their noses.
[3]
This
misnomer
may have occurred as a result of confusion on the part of the French, as it was surrounding tribes who did so.
[3]
The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the
Plateau Penutian family
(which, in turn, may be related to a larger
Penutian
grouping). It is spoken by the
Nez Perce people
of the
Northwestern United States
.
Nez Perce is a highly
endangered language
. While sources differ on the exact number of fluent speakers, it is almost definitely under 100. The Nez Perce tribe is endeavoring to reintroduce the language into native usage through a
language revitalization
program, but (as of 2015) the future of the Nez Perce language is far from assured.
[4]
Phonology
[
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]
The
phonology
of Nez Perce includes
vowel harmony
(which was mentioned in
Noam Chomsky
&
Morris Halle
's
The Sound Pattern of English
), as well as a complex
stress
system described by Crook (1999).
Consonants
[
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]
The sounds
k?
,
k??
,
q?
,
q??
and
?
only occur in the Downriver dialect.
Vowels
[
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]
Nez Perce has an average-sized inventory of five vowels, each marked for
length
. Unusually for a five-vowel system, however, it lacks a
mid front vowel
/e/
, with low front
/æ/
in its place. Such an asymmetrical configuration is found in less than five percent of the languages that distinguish exactly five vowels, and among those that do display an asymmetry, the "missing" vowel is overwhelmingly more likely to be a back vowel
/u/
or
/o/
than front
/e/
. Indeed, Nez Perce's lack of a mid front vowel within a five-vowel system appears unique, and contrary to basic tendencies toward triangularity in the allocation of vowel space. A potential reason for this peculiarity is discussed in the section on vowel harmony below.
Stress is marked with an acute accent
⟨a, e, i, o, u⟩
.
Diphthongs
[
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]
Nez Perce distinguishes seven
diphthongs
, all with phonemic length:
Vowel harmony
[
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]
Nez Perce displays an extensive system of
vowel harmony
. Vowel qualities are divided into two opposing sets, "dominant"
/i
a
o/
and "recessive"
/i
æ
u/
. The presence of a dominant vowel causes all recessive vowels within the same phonological word to assimilate to their dominant counterpart; hence with the addition of the dominant-marked suffix
/-?ajn/
:
ce·qet
/ts?ːqæt/
"raspberry"
ca·qat'ayn
/tsaːqat'ajn/
"for a raspberry"
ce·qet
ca·qat'ayn
/ts?ːqæt/ {} /tsaːqat'ajn/
"raspberry" {} {"for a raspberry"}
With very few exceptions, therefore, phonological words may contain only vowels of the dominant or recessive set. Despite occurring in both sets,
/i/
is not neutral; instead, it is either dominant or recessive depending on the morpheme in which it occurs.
This system presents a challenge to common concepts of vowel harmony, since it does not appear to be based on obvious considerations of backness, height, or
tongue root position
. To account for this, Katherine Nelson (2013)
proposes that the two sets be considered as distinct "triangles" of vowel space, each by themselves maximally dispersed, where the recessive set is somewhat retracted (further back) in comparison to the dominant:
Recessive → dominant
|
Front
|
Central
|
Back
|
High
|
i
(→ i)
|
|
u
→ o
|
Low
|
æ
→ a
|
This dual system would simultaneously explain two apparent phonological aberrances: the absence of a mid front vowel
/e/
, and the fact that phonemic
/i/
can be marked either as dominant or recessive. Since the three vowels of a given set are placed with regard to the other vowels
of the same set
, the low height of the front vowel
/æ/
appears natural (that is, maximally dispersed) against its high counterparts
/i
u/
, as in a three-vowel system such as those of
Arabic
and
Quechua
. The high front vowel
/i/
meanwhile, is retracted much less in the transition from recessive to dominant - little enough that the distinction does not surface phonemically - and therefore can be placed near to the crux around which the triangle of vowel space is "tilted" by retraction.
Syllable structure
[
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]
The Nez Perce syllable canon is CV(
ː
)(C)(C)(C)(C); that is, a mandatory consonant-vowel sequence with optional vowel length, followed by up to four coda consonants. The arrangement of permitted coda clusters is summarized in the following table, where segments in each column can follow those to their right (C' represents any glottalized consonant), except when the same consonant would occur twice:
C
1
|
V(
ː
)
|
C
2
|
C
3
|
C
4
|
C
5
|
Example
|
(Any consonant)
|
(Any vowel)
|
NOT (k, q, h, C')
|
tehes
"ice"
|
NOT (
?
, C')
|
NOT (k, q, h, C')
|
so·ts
"deep water"
|
NOT (p, t, k, q, C')
|
p, t, c, q, x, y
|
t, c, s, x
|
lilps
"mushroom sp."
|
p,
?
, h, x
|
t, c, n, y, w, s
|
p, k, s, x, q
|
t, c, s
|
t?uxsks
"I smashed with hand"
|
Writing system
[
edit
]
Nez Perce alphabet (Colville Confederated Tribes)
[9]
a
|
a·
|
c
|
c’
|
e
|
e·
|
h
|
i
|
i·
|
k
|
k’
|
l
|
l’
|
ł
|
?
|
m
|
m’
|
n
|
n’
|
o
|
o·
|
p
|
p’
|
q
|
q’
|
s
|
t
|
t’
|
u
|
u·
|
w
|
w’
|
x
|
x?
|
y
|
y’
|
?
|
Grammar
[
edit
]
As in many other
indigenous languages of the Americas
, a Nez Perce verb can have the meaning of an entire sentence in English. This manner of providing a great deal of information in one
word
is called
polysynthesis
. Verbal affixes provide information about the
person
and
number
of the
subject
and
object
, as well as
tense
and
aspect
(e.g. whether or not an action has been completed).
?aw?liwaa?inpqawtaca
?ew ?iliw wee ?inipi qaw tee ce
1/2-3.OBJ fire fly grab straight.through go.away IMPERF.PRES.SG
'I go to scoop him up in the fire'
hitw?alapayna
hi tiw?ele paay e
3.SUBJ in.rain come PAST
'He arrived in the rain'
Documentation History
[
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]
Asa Bowen Smith
developed the Nez Perce grammar by adapting the missionary alphabet used in Hawaiian missions, and adding the consonants s and t.
[12]
In 1840,
Asa Bowen Smith
wrote the manuscript for the book
Grammar of the Language of the Nez Perces Indians Formerly of Oregon, U.S.
.
The
grammar
of Nez Perce has been described in a grammar (
Aoki 1973
) and a dictionary (
Aoki 1994
) with two dissertations.
Case
[
edit
]
In Nez Perce, the subject of a sentence, and the object when there is one, can each be marked for
grammatical case
, an affix that shows the function of the word (compare to English
he
vs.
him
vs.
his
). Nez Perce employs a three-way case-marking strategy: a transitive subject, a transitive object, and an intransitive subject are each marked differently. Nez Perce is thus an example of the very rare type of
tripartite languages
(see
morphosyntactic alignment
).
Because of this case marking, the word order can be quite free. A specific word order tells the hearer what is new information (
focus
) versus old information (
topic
), but it does not mark the subject and the object (in English, word order is fixed —
subject?verb?object
).
Nouns in Nez Perce are marked based on how they relate to the transitivity of the verb. Subjects in a sentence with a transitive verb take the ergative suffix
-nim
, objects in a sentence with a transitive verb take the accusative suffix
-ne
, and subjects in sentences with an intransitive verb don’t take a suffix.
Ergative
|
Accusative
|
Intransitive subject
|
suffix -nim
|
suffix -ne
(here subject to vowel harmony, resulting in surface form -na)
|
|
?a?aas
-nim
hitwek?xce
grizzly-ERG he.is.chasing
‘Grizzly is chasing me’
|
paaqa?ancix
they.respect.him
?oykalo-m titooqan-m paaqa?ancix ?a?aas
-na
all-ERG people-ERG they.respect.him grizzly-ACC
‘All people respect Grizzly’
|
?a?aac hiwehyem
grizzly has.come
‘Grizzly has come’
|
This system of marking allows for flexible word order in Nez Perce:
Verb?subject?object word order
pee-ten’we-m-e
3→3-talk-
CSL
-
PAST
kii pee-ten’we-m-e qiiw-ne ’iceyeeye-nm
this 3→3-talk-CSL-PAST old.man-OBJ coyote-ERG
‘Now the coyote talked to the old man’
Subject?verb?object word order
paa-’nahna-m-a
3→3-carry-
CSL
-
PAST
Kaa haatya-nm paa-’nahna-m-a ’iceyeeye-ne
and wind-ERG 3→3-carry-CSL-PAST coyote-OBJ
‘And the wind carried coyote here’
Subject?object?verb word order
pee-’nehnen-e
3→3-take.away-
PAST
Kawo’ kii haama-pim ’aayato-na pee-’nehnen-e
then this husband-ERG woman-OBJ 3→3-take.away-PAST
‘Now then the husband took the woman away’
References
[
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]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Aoki, Haruo (1994).
Nez Perce Dictionary
. University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0-520-09763-6
.
- Aoki, Haruo (1973).
Nez Perce Grammar
. University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0-520-02524-0
.
- Aoki, Haruo (1979).
Nez Perce Texts
. University of California publications in linguistics. Vol. 90. Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN
0-520-09593-6
.
2
,
3
- Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989).
Titwaatit: (Nez Perce Stories)
. Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska.
ISBN
0-520-09593-6
. (Material originally published in Aoki 1979).
- Aoki, Haruo; & Walker, Deward E., Jr. (1989).
Nez Perce oral narratives
. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 104). Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN
0-520-09593-6
.
- Cash Cash, Phillip (2004).
"Nez Perce verb morphology"
(PDF)
.
Unpublished manuscript
. Tucson: University of Arizona. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on Nov 3, 2020.
- Crook, Harold D. (1999).
The phonology and morphology of Nez Perce stress
(Doctoral dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles.
- Mithun, Marianne
(1999).
The languages of Native North America
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
0-521-23228-7
.
- Rude, Noel E. (1985).
Studies in Nez Perce grammar and discourse
(Doctoral dissertation). University of Oregon.
- Rude, Noel E. (1992). "Word Order and Topicality in Nez Perce".
Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility
. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 193?208.
doi
:
10.1075/tsl.22.08rud
.
- Nelson, Katherine (June 2013).
"The Nez Perce vowel system: A phonetic analysis"
.
Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics
.
19
.
doi
:
10.1121/1.4800241
.
- Smith, Asa Bowen; Tingley, Sylvanus (1840).
Grammar of the Language of the Nez Perces Indians Formerly of Oregon, U.S.: From the manuscript of Rev. A.B. Smith dated Sept. 28, 1840. Now in archives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston, Mass. Volume 138
.
OCLC
39088111
. Retrieved
2021-11-04
– via WorldCat.
Vowel harmony
[
edit
]
- Aoki, Haruo (December 1966). "Nez Perce Vowel Harmony and Proto-Sahaptian Vowels".
Language
.
42
(4): 759?767.
doi
:
10.2307/411831
.
JSTOR
411831
.
- Aoki, Haruo (1968). "Toward a typology of vowel harmony".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
34
(2): 142?145.
doi
:
10.1086/465006
.
S2CID
143700904
.
- Chomsky, Noam
; &
Halle, Morris
. (1968).
Sound pattern of English
(pp. 377?378). Studies in language. New York: Harper & Row.
- Hall, Beatrice L.; &
Hall, R. M. R.
(1980). Nez Perce vowel harmony: An Africanist explanation and some theoretical consequences. In R. M. Vago (Ed.),
Issues in vowel harmony
(pp. 201?236). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Jacobsen, William (1968). "On the prehistory of Nez Perce vowel harmony".
Language
.
44
(4): 819?829.
doi
:
10.2307/411901
.
JSTOR
411901
.
- Kim, Chin (1978). 'Diagonal' vowel harmony?: Some implications for historical phonology. In J. Fisiak (Ed.),
Recent developments in historical phonology
(pp. 221?236). The Hague: Mouton.
- Lightner, Theodore (1965).
"On the description of vowel and consonant harmony"
.
Word
.
21
(2): 244?250.
doi
:
10.1080/00437956.1965.11435427
.
- Rigsby, Bruce (1965). "Continuity and change in Sahaptian vowel systems".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
31
(4): 306?311.
doi
:
10.1086/464860
.
S2CID
144876511
.
- Rigsby, Bruce;
Silverstein, Michael
(1969). "Nez Perce vowels and proto-Sahaptian vowel harmony".
Language
.
45
(1): 45?59.
doi
:
10.2307/411752
.
JSTOR
411752
.
- Zimmer, Karl (1967). "A note on vowel harmony".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
33
(2): 166?171.
doi
:
10.1086/464954
.
S2CID
144825775
.
- Zwicky, Arnold
(1971). "More on Nez Perce: On alternative analyses".
International Journal of American Linguistics
.
37
(2): 122?126.
doi
:
10.1086/465146
.
hdl
:
1811/85957
.
S2CID
96455877
.
Language learning materials
[
edit
]
Dictionaries and vocabulary
[
edit
]
Grammar
[
edit
]
- Aoki, Haruo. (1965).
Nez Perce grammar
. University of California, Berkeley.
- Aoki, Haruo. (1970).
Nez Perce grammar
. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 62). Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN
0-520-09259-7
. (Reprinted 1973, California Library Reprint series).
- Missionary in the Society of Jesus in the Rocky Mountains (1891).
A Numipu or Nez-Perce grammar
. Desmet, Idaho: Indian Boys' Press.
ISBN
9780665175299
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
Texts and courses
[
edit
]
- "Nimipuutimt Calendar and Nez Perce Tribe Language Program"
. Archived from
the original
on 2013-09-23
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
- Aoki, Haruo. (1979).
Nez Perce texts
. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 90). Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN
0-520-09593-6
.,
2
,
3
- Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989).
Titwaatit: (Nez Perce Stories)
. Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska.
ISBN
0-520-09593-6
. (Material originally published in Aoki 1979).
- "Nez Perce Language Courses"
(Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and American Indian Studies Program, University of Idaho)
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
- Rockliff, J. A. (1915).
"The Life of Jesus Christ from the Four Gospels in the Nez Perce Language"
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
- "Nez Perce language - Audio Bible stories and lessons"
.
Global Recordings Network
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
- "Nez Perce Language Courses"
(Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and American Indian Studies Program, University of Idaho)
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
- "Nez Perce Literature and vocabulary"
.
Indigenous Peoples' Literature
. Retrieved
2013-09-21
.
- Watters, Mari. (1990).
Nez Perce tapes and texts
. [5 audio cassettes & 1 booklet]. Moscow, Idaho: Mari Watters Productions, Upward Bound, College of Education, University of Idaho.
External links
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]
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Language families
and isolates
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