Nez Perce language

File:Plateau Penutian langs.png

Pre-contact distribution of Plateau Penutian languages

Nez Perce, also spelled Nez Percé or called nimipuutímt (alternatively spelled nimiipuutímt, niimiipuutímt, or niimi'ipuutímt), is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin (note the spellings -ian vs. -in). Nez Perce comes from the French phrase , "pierced nose"; however, Nez Perce, who call themselves , meaning "the people", did not pierce their noses. This misnomer may have occurred as a result of confusion on the part of the French, as it was surrounding tribes who did so.

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.

Phonology

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).Template:Sfn

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Nez PerceTemplate:Sfn

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			central	sibilant	lateral		plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link
	ejective	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
Fricative				Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	( Template:IPA link )	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Sonorant	plain	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	glottalized	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

The sounds / / and / / only occur in the Downriver dialect.Template:Sfn

Vowels

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 , with low front 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 or than front . 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.

Vowel phonemes of Nez PerceTemplate:Sfn

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Mid			Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Low	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

Stress is marked with an acute accent Template:Grapheme.

Diphthongs

Nez Perce distinguishes seven diphthongs, all with phonemic length:

	Front	Central	Back
High (level)
Mid (rising)
Low (rising)

Vowel harmony

Nez Perce displays an extensive system of vowel harmony. Vowel qualities are divided into two opposing sets, "dominant" and "recessive" . 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 :

With very few exceptions, therefore, phonological words may contain only vowels of the dominant or recessive set. Despite occurring in both sets, 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)Template:Sfn 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)		→ o
Low	→ a

This dual system would simultaneously explain two apparent phonological aberrances: the absence of a mid front vowel , and the fact that phonemic 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 appears natural (that is, maximally dispersed) against its high counterparts , as in a three-vowel system such as those of Arabic and Quechua. The high front vowel 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.Template:Sfn

Syllable structure

The Nez Perce syllable canon is CV()(C)(C)(C)(C). That is, all syllables begin with a single consonant in the onset, followed by a vowel, which may be short or long. Coda sequences may comprise up to four consonants.

There are restrictions to the types of consonants that occur in the coda, both as single segments or in sequences. As a rule, ejective consonants never occur in the coda, and the longer the sequence, the bigger the restriction. The longest coda sequences tend to comprise morphemes. These are summarized in the following table, where ‹C'› represents any ejective consonant.

Conset	V()	C1	C2	C3	C4	Example	English
any consonant	any vowel	all but /k q h Cʼ/	-			/ˈtæhæs/	“ice”
		all but /Template:IPA link Cʼ/	all but /k q h Cʼ/	-		/taχt͡s/	“now”
		all but /p t k q Cʼ/	/p t ts q x j/	/t ts s x/	-	/walˀaˈt͡sʼaskt/	“pony tail”
		/p Template:IPA link h x/	/t ts n j w s/	/p k s x q/	/t ts s/	/tʼuxsks/	“I smashed with hand”

Writing system

Nez Perce alphabet (Colville Confederated Tribes)

a

a·

c

c’

e

é·

h

i

í·

k

k’

l

l’

ł

ƛ

m

m’

n

n’

o

ó·

p

p’

q

q’

s

t

t’

u

ú·

w

w’

x

x̂

y

y’

ʔ

Grammar

File:Nez-perce-chiefs-1899-camas-prairie.jpg

Nez Perce chiefs

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).

Documentation History

Asa Bowen Smith developed the Nez Perce grammar by adapting the missionary alphabet used in Hawaiian missions, and adding the consonants s and t. 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..Template:Sfn The grammar of Nez Perce has been described in a grammar and a dictionary with two dissertations.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Case

Nez Perce nouns are marked for grammatical case. Nez Perce employs a three-way case-marking strategy: a transitive subject, a transitive object, and an intransitive subject are each marked differently. It is thus an example of the very rare type of tripartite languages (see morphosyntactic alignment).

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)
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear

Verbal morphology

The Nez perce verb encodes number (and to a lesser extent person) for one or two arguments, and also has a very rich system suffixal system encoding tense, aspect, polarity and associated motion. In addition, it has a series of hundreds of preverbs encoding instrument, posture and various unusual categories.

In particular, it has one of the richest system of periodic tense among the world's languages, including matutinal, diurnal, vesperal, nocturnal and hivernal, as illustrated in the following examples (examples from Aoki 1994: 751–752, interlinear glosses from Jacques 2023:2-3).

The Nez perce verb has three different ways of expressing simulative 'pretend': a suffix -tay, the combination of the reflexive indexation prefix with the 'by mouth' instrumental preverb, and the simulative -né·wi suffix.

Word order

The word order in Nez Perce is quite flexible and serves to introduce information on the topic and focus of a sentence.

Verb–subject–object word order Template:Interlinear

Subject–verb–object word order Template:Interlinear

Subject–object–verb word order Template:Interlinear

In media

The 2010 film Meek's Cutoff features a Cayuse man (played by Rod Rondeaux) who speaks the Downriver dialect of Nez Perce.

References

Bibliography

• 2, 3
• Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989). Titwáatit: (Nez Perce Stories). Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska. Template:ISBN. (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. Template:ISBN.
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Cite thesis

Vowel harmony

• 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.
• 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.

Language learning materials

Dictionaries and vocabulary

• Aoki, Haruo. (1994). Nez Perce dictionary. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 112). Berkeley: University of California Press. Template:ISBN.

Grammar

• 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. Template:ISBN. (Reprinted 1973, California Library Reprint series).

Texts and courses

• Aoki, Haruo. (1979). Nez Perce texts. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 90). Berkeley: University of California Press. Template:ISBN., 2, 3
• Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989). Titwáatit: (Nez Perce Stories). Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska. Template:ISBN. (Material originally published in Aoki 1979).
• 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

• Nez Perce language videos, YouTube
• Phillip Cash Cash website (Nez Perce researcher)
  • Nez Perce sounds
  • Joseph Red Thunder: Speech of August 6, 1989 at the Big Hole National Battlefield Commemorating our Nez Perce Ancestors (has audio)
  • Hinmatóowyalahtq'it: Speech of 1877 as retold by Jonah Hayes (ca. 1907)Template:Dead link (.mov)
  • Fox narrative animation (.swf)
  • Nez Perce Verb Morphology (.pdf)
  • wéeyekweʔnipse ‘to sing one's spirit song’: Performance and metaphor in Nez Perce spirit-singing (.pdf)
  • Tɨmnákni Tímat (Writing from the Heart): Sahaptin Discourse and Text in the Speaker Writing of X̣ílux̣in (.pdf)
• A map of American languages (TITUS project)
• Nez Percé at the Rosetta Project
• OLAC resources in and about the Nez Perce language