Sinixt language
| Sinixt | |
|---|---|
| (Arrow) Lakes | |
| sn-səlxcin | |
| Native to | Canada, United States |
| Region | British Columbia, Washington |
| Ethnicity | Sinixt people |
|
Salishan
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | lake1256 |
Sinixt (sn-selxcin) is a Salish language traditionally spoken among the Sinixt people of the southern Interior Plateau region, and based primarily in the Columbia River Basin. It is a dialect of the Okanagan language, and is closely related to other southern interior Salish languages such as Flathead/Kalispel, which is also called selxcin by speakers.
Names for the different Salishan plateau languages are based in the land on which they are spoken, and, since colonization and the relocation of Interior Salish families, the differences between these languages are not as well-known today, and a more generalized language has come into use." However, the Sinixt state on their website that they wish to preserve their language, with its unique dialectic differences, as exactly as possible, no matter how insignificant the pronunciation differences may be between the various dialects. They also "encourage people working to save the language to respect these dialects whenever possible and to honor them."
The Sinixt Nation website also states that "(o)riginally there were two versions of the language for Sinixt peoples, one for the men (sn-skəlxʷcin or language of humans) and one for the women (sn-səlxcin or language of water). Both of these dialects were understood by all Sinixt people but reserved for speaking only by the determined sex." The language used today "is a combination of the two."
Anthropologist James Teit noted in 1909 that the Sinixt dialect was distinguished from other plateau Salishan dialects by the slow and measured manner in which it was spoken.
It is unknown how many fluent speakers of the Sinixt language there are at this time although the Sinixt Nation website states that it is an endangered language "at risk of being lost forever if serious initiatives are not undertaken."
Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy record fur trader Alexander Ross as the first person "to record an identification of the Lakes (Sinixt) people" by a transcription of their name, in September 1821."
Anthropologists Franz Boas, James Teit and Verne Ray, and explorers George Mercer Dawson, James Turnbull, and Walter Moberly (engineer) all added to the extant written record of Sinixt words and place names.
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Wikipedia