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Thompson
Thompson
Nłeʔkepmxcín
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	British Columbia, Washington
Ethnicity	3,105 Nlaka'pamux
Native speakers	130 (2014 FPCC)
Language family	Salishan Interior Salish Northern Thompson; ; ;
Writing system	Duployan shorthand (historical)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thp
Glottolog	thom1243

The Thompson language, also known as Nlaka'pamuctsin or the Nlaka'pamux ('Nthlakampx') language, is an Interior Salishan language spoken in the Fraser Canyon, Thompson Canyon, Nicola Country of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and formerly in the North Cascades region of Whatcom and Chelan counties of the state of Washington in the United States. A dialect distinctive to the Nicola Valley is called Scw'exmx, which is the name of the subgroup of the Nlaka'pamux who live there.

Phonology edit

Thompson distinguishes. The consonants can be divided into two subgroups: obstruents, which restrict airflow, and sonorants or resonants, which do not.^[2] The sonorants are often syllabic consonants, which can form syllables on their own without vowels.

Consonants edit

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal		Glottal
		Bilabial	central	sibilant	lateral	Palatal	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t	ts	tɬ	tʃ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ			ʔ
Plosive/ Affricate	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ			kʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ			ʔ
Fricative	plain			s	ɬ	ʃ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	ʕ	ʕʷ	h
	voiced			z
	glottalized			ˀz							ˀʕ	ˀʕʷ
Sonorant	plain	m	n		l	j		w
Sonorant	glottalized	ˀm	ˀn		ˀl	ˀj		ˀw

Like all Salishan languages, Thompson allows for extensive consonant clusters on the surface level.

Vowels edit

	Front		Central		Back
	nor.	ret.	nor.	ret.	Back
Close	i ~ i̠				u
Mid	e		ə ~ ə̠		o
Open			a

Stress edit

Stress is unpredictable on the phonological level in Thompson. Instead, each root is marked as "strong" or "weak" - that is, taking primary stress or not. Suffixes, meanwhile, can be "strong" or "nonstrong", with the latter divided into "ambivalent" or "weak". Underlyingly strong syllables are marked with an acute accent on the vowel (e.g. <á>), as are syllables that are stressed in the surface realization. The rules for stress assignment are as follows:

Prefixes never take primary stress.
A suffix is stressed when it is equal or greater in strength to its respective root. A strong suffix, therefore, will take stress from a strong or weak root, and a nonstrong suffix will take stress from a weak root. For example, the desiderative suffix |-mémn| is stressed both with a weak root, as in |√cəw-mémn-| /cu-mémn-/ "want to work", and with a strong root, as in |√tékɬ-mémn-| > /tekɬ-mémn-/ "trying to rain". A nonstrong suffix like |=qin| "head, top", for example, will not take stress from a strong root, as in |ʔes-q’áz=qin| > /ʔes-q’áz-qn/ "slanted on top", but will take stress from a weak root, as in |√wux^wt=qin| > /wux^wt-qín| "snow on top". (For standards of notation, see "Phonological processes" below).
An ambivalent suffix, such as |qin| above, will capture stress from a weak root and form a strong stem in further derivation:

Phonological processes edit

Proper analysis of phonological processes in Thompson requires multiple levels of notation to convey the transition from underlying morphology to speech.

Thompson's extensive consonant clusters generally arise due to pervasive syncope of underlying vowels in unstressed positions, which may be pronounced elsewhere. For example, cúłqsxtx^w "you point a gun at him" can be represented underlyingly as /cúł=aqs-xi-t-x^w/, with three underlying vowels instead of one.

Morphology and syntax edit

Researchers working in the Generative tradition have speculated that Salishan languages lack lexical categories such as nouns and verbs. Evidence for such an absence of contrast between parts of speech in Thompson come from a lack of clear morphological markers (e.g. morphemes) that differentiate nouns and verbs.^[3]^[4] Instead, generative linguists discuss morphology and syntax in Salishan based on a framework of predicates and particles.^[4] However, more contemporary work suggests a changing understanding of Salishan grammar. Some Salishanists believe that functional categories are not prescriptive of lexical categories. Work in Functional linguistics suggests that other factors beyond morphological evidence code lexical categories in languages. In Salishan, the distinction would be less overt than in some other languages.^[5]^[6]

Lexical suffixes edit

One morphological feature of Thompson is lexical suffixes.^[4] These are words that add nuance to predicates and can be affixed to the ends of root words to add their general meaning to that word.^[2] Thompson and Thompson assert that as a result of English language influence, speakers are using these more complex predicates less and less in favor of simpler predicates with complements and adjuncts, resulting in “a general decline in the exploitation of the rich synthetic resources of the language.”^[2]

Suffix	Suffix meaning	Root	Root meaning	Suffixed form
꞊uyəm’x^w	earth, land, place; in vicinity; (earth) oven; baked goods	/q’íx̣-t	strong, secure	/q’íx̣꞊ym’x^w	firm, hard ground
		√c’əɬ	cold	/c’ɬ꞊úym’x^w	it is a cold country
		k^w[ʔá]l’	turn green	/k^wa[ʔ]l’꞊úym’x^w	the grass turns green
		√c’áp	ferment	n/c’áp꞊ym’x^w	sour-dough, yeast bread
꞊ekst	hand, arm	√kiyèʔ	ahead, in front, principal, the eldest	s/kiyèʔ꞊qín'꞊kst	thumb
꞊qin	head				thumb
꞊xn	foot, leg			s/kiyèʔ꞊qín'꞊xn	big toe
꞊xn	foot, leg	√k'əm	focal area	n/k'm꞊énk꞊xn	sole of foot
꞊ene(ʔ)k	belly, under side	√k'əm	focal area	n/k'm꞊énk꞊xn

References edit

^ Thompson at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
^ ^a ^b ^c Thompson, Lawrence C.; Thompson, M. Terry (1992). The Thompson Language. University of Montana Press.
^ Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 117.
^ ^a ^b ^c Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 64.
^ Haag, Marcia (October 1998). "Word-Level Evidence for Lexical Categories in Salishan Languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 64 (4): 379–393. doi:10.1086/466367.
^ Koch, Karsten; Matthewson, Lisa (2009). "The Lexical category debate in Salish and its relevance for Tagalog". Theoretical Linguistics. 35 (1): 125–137. doi:10.1515/thli.2009.007.

External links edit

Native.Languages.org entry
Nlekepmxcin keyboard from languagegeek.com
Human rights plaque in Nlha7kápmx language (archive of SchoolNet page)
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Nlaka'pamux or Thompson

This article related to the Indigenous languages of the Americas is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This British Columbia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

			Dependent
			Animate: -sekohs- "aunt"		Inanimate: -iik- "house"		Locative
			Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Locative
Singular	1		nisekohsa	nisekohsaki	niiki	niika
	2		kisekohsa	kisekohsaki	kiiki	kiika
	3		asekohsali	asekohsahi	awiiki	awiika
Plural	1	Inclusive	nisekohsena	nisekohsenaanaki	niikinaani	niikinaana
	1	Exclusive	kisekohsena	kisekohsenaanaki	kiikinaani	kiikinaana
	2		kisekohsawa	kisekohsawaaki	kiikawaawi (kiikawe)	kiikawa
	3		asekohsawaali	asekohsawaahi	awiikawe	awiikawa
Indefinite			asekohsema	asekohsemaaki	awiikime

[e21-1] Thompson at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)

[Thompson_Thompson-2] Thompson, Lawrence C.; Thompson, M. Terry (1992). The Thompson Language. University of Montana Press.

[Campbell_American-3] Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 117.

[Mithun_Languages-4] Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 64.

[Haag_Word-5] Haag, Marcia (October 1998). "Word-Level Evidence for Lexical Categories in Salishan Languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 64 (4): 379–393. doi:10.1086/466367.

[6] Koch, Karsten; Matthewson, Lisa (2009). "The Lexical category debate in Salish and its relevance for Tagalog". Theoretical Linguistics. 35 (1): 125–137. doi:10.1515/thli.2009.007.

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