Shasta language

The Shasta language is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken from northern California into southwestern Oregon. It was spoken in a number of dialects, possibly including Okwanuchu. By 1980, only two first language speakers, both elderly, were alive. Today, all ethnic Shasta people speak English as their first language. According to Golla, there were four distinct dialects of Shasta:

• Ikirakácˑu (Oregon Shasta)
• Iruhikwáˑcˑu (Klamath River Shasta)
• Uwáˑtuhúcˑu (Scott Valley Shasta)
• Ahútˑireˀeˑcˑu (Shasta Valley Shasta)

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	affricated
Stop	ejective	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink
	unaspirated	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink
Fricative			Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink
Nasal		Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink    Template:IPAlink
Approximant			Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

The length of a consonant distinguishes meaning in Shasta words. All stops, fricatives and nasals can occur as long or short in Shasta, but approximants /r j w/ only occur as short consonants. Minimal pairs and near minimal pairs are shown below:

• /t͡ʃákàráx/ a gnat vs. /t͡sàkːírʔ/ a board
• /ʔátʼùʔ/ nothing vs. /ʔátʼːùʔ/ wild sunflower
• /ʔìsíkʼːàʔ/ a person vs. /ʔìsːíkʼ/ cold

Vowels

Shasta has four vowels, , with contrastive length, and two tones: high and low.

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Open			Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

Orthography

Silver (1966) devised a spelling system for distinguishing consonants and vowels in Shasta. Long phonemes are represented with the symbol ⟨ˑ⟩ following the character (e.g. ⟨cˑ⟩ and ⟨eˑ⟩ for/ t͡sː/ and /eː/, respectively); ejectives are indicated by an apostrophe written over the character (e.g. ⟨p̓⟩ for /pʼ/). The phoneme is represented by Template:Angbr, and the glottal stop /ʔ/ is represented by the superscript IPA symbol ⟨ˀ⟩. The letters ⟨b d f g j l q v z⟩ are not used to represent Shasta sounds.

Shasta alphabet

A a	Aˑ aˑ	C c	Cˑ cˑ	C̓ c̓	C̓ˑ c̓ˑ	Č č	Čˑ čˑ	Č̓ č̓	Č̓ˑ č̓ˑ
E e	Eˑ eˑ	H h	Hˑ hˑ	I i	Iˑ iˑ	K k	Kˑ kˑ	K̓ k̓	K̓ˑ k̓ˑ
M m	Mˑ mˑ	N n	Nˑ nˑ	P p	Pˑ pˑ	P̓ p̓	P̓ˑ p̓ˑ	R r	S s
Sˑ sˑ	T t	Tˑ tˑ	T̓ t̓	T̓ˑ t̓ˑ	U u	Uˑ uˑ	W w	X x	Xˑ xˑ
Y y	ˀ	ˀˑ

Tones

Shasta vowels can have low or high tones. High tones are marked by an acute accent ⟨′⟩ in the orthography devised by Silver (1966), whereas low tones are left unmarked. Examples for the vowel /u/ are given below:

IPA	Orthography
/ú/	ú
/úː/	úˑ
/ù/	u
/ùː/	uˑ

Bibliography

• Golla, Victor (2011), California Indian languages, Berkeley: University of California Press

External links

• Shasta language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Shasta basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• OLAC resources in and about the Shasta language