Chilcotin language
| Chilcotin | |
|---|---|
| Tŝinlhqut’in | |
| Native to | Canada |
| Region | Chilcotin Country, Central Interior of British Columbia |
| Ethnicity | 4,350 Tsilhqot'in (2014, FPCC) |
|
Native speakers
|
860 (2014, FPCC) |
|
Dené–Yeniseian?
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | chil1280 |
Chilcotin (also Tsilhqot’in, Tsilhqut’in, Tzilkotin) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqot’in people.
The name Chilcotin is derived from the Chilcotin name for themselves: Tŝilhqot’in [ts̠ˤʰᵊĩɬqʰotʼin], literally "people of the red ochre river".
Chilcotin has 47 consonants:
Chilcotin has 6 vowels:
Every given Chilcotin vowel has a number of different phonetic realizations from complex phonological processes (such as nasalization, laxing, flattening). For instance, the vowel /i/ can be variously pronounced [i, ĩ, ɪ, e, ᵊi, ᵊĩ, ᵊɪ].
Chilcotin is a tonal language with two tones: high tone and low tone.
Chilcotin has vowel flattening and consonant harmony. Consonant harmony (sibilant harmony) is rather common in the Athabaskan language family. Vowel flattening is unique to Chilcotin but is similar to phonological processes in other unrelated Interior Salishan languages spoken in the same area, such as Shuswap, St'át'imcets, and Thompson River Salish (and thus was probably borrowed into Chilcotin). That type of harmony is an areal feature common in this region of North America. The Chilcotin processes, however, are much more complicated.
Vowel nasalization is a phonological process by which the phoneme /n/ is nasalizes the preceding vowel. It occurs when the vowel + /n/ sequence is followed by a (tautosyllabic) continuant consonant (such as /ɬ, sˤ, zˤ, ç, j, χ/).
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