North Straits Salish language

Infobox Language
name=North Straits Salish
region=Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada; Washington, USA
speakers=~20
iso2=sal
iso3=str
familycolor=American
fam1=Salishan
fam2=Coast
fam3=Central
fam4=Straits

North Straits Salish is a Salishan language which includes the dialects of Lummi, Samish, Saanich, Semiahmoo, Songish, and Sooke. Although they are mutually intelligible, each dialect is traditionally referred to as if they were separate languages, and there is no native term to encompass them all.

North Straits along with Klallam form the Straits Salish branch of the Central Coast Salish languages. Klallam and North Straits are very closely related, but not mutually intelligible.

Phonology

Vowels

There is considerable variation among the dialects in the non-high vowels: IPA|/e/ ranges from IPA| [e] to IPA| [æ] ; IPA|/ə/ is higher in palatal environments, rounded in labialized environments, and IPA| [ʌ] when stressed; and IPA|/a/ ranges to IPA| [ɑ] , IPA| [ɒ] , and IPA| [ɔ] .

Consonants

The following table includes all the sounds found in the North Straits dialects. No one dialect includes them all.The unrounded velar stop IPA|/k/ is found only in loanwords in all dialects.

Saanich has turned former IPA|/ts tsʼ/ into IPA|/s̪ ts̪ʼ/, respectively. It is the only dialect to have IPA|/s̪ ts̪ʼ/. IPA|/s̪ ts̪ʼ/ are also written IPA|/θ tθʼ/, although they are not interdental.

Sooke has turned former IPA|/l/ into IPA|/j/. While IPA|/l/ occurs in native words in other dialects, in Sooke it is only present in loanwords.

The uvular nasals IPA|/ɴ ɴʼ/ are also written IPA|/ŋ ŋʼ/, but they are not velar.

The status of the glottalized resonants IPA|/mʼ nʼ ɴʼ lʼ jʼ wʼ/ is not agreed upon. Some linguists analyse them as unit phonemes, others as sequences of a plain resonant and a glottal stop IPA|/ʔ/.

References

*cite journal|author=Laurence C. Thompson; M. Terry Thompson; Barbara S. Efrat|title=Some Phonological Developments in Straits Salish|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|year=1974|volume=40|issue=3| pages=182–196|doi=10.1086/465311
*cite journal|author=Timothy Montler|title=Language and dialect variation in Straits Salishan|journal=Anthropological Linguistics|year=1999|volume=41|issue=4| pages=462–502

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=str Ethnologue report for language code:str]
* [http://www.cas.unt.edu/~montler/Saanich/Outline/index.htm An Outline of the Morphology and Phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish]
* [http://www.cas.unt.edu/~montler/Saanich/WordList/index.htm Saanich, North Straits Salish Classified Word List]