Sahaptian languages

Sahaptian (also Sahaptianic, Sahaptin, Shahaptian) is a two-language branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.

Sahaptian
Sħaptian
Geographic distribution	Pacific Northwest
Linguistic classification	Penutian? Plateau Penutian? Sahaptian
Subdivisions	Nez Perce Sahaptin
Language codes
Glottolog	saha1239

The terms Sahaptian (the family) and Sahaptin (the language) have often been confused and used interchangeably in the literature.

Sahaptian among Pre-contact distribution of Plateau Penutian languages

Family division

Sahaptian includes two languages:

1. Nez Perce (Niimiʼipuutímt)

2. Sahaptin

Nez Perce has two principal dialects, Upper and Lower. Sahaptin has somewhat greater internal diversity, with its main dialects being Umatilla and Yakama.

Noel Rude's (2012) classification of Sahaptian is as follows.

• Proto-Sahaptian
  • Nez Perce
  • Sahaptin
    • Columbia River dialect
    • Northern dialect
      • Northwest dialect
      • Northeast dialect

Proto-language

Proto-Sahaptian
Reconstruction of	Sahaptian languages

Work on Proto-Sahaptian reconstruction has been undertaken by Aoki (1962) and Noel Rude (2006, 2012).

Proto-Sahaptian consonants:

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			plain	lateral	central		plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Stop/Affricate		p	t	ƛ	c	č	k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
Ejective		p̓	t̓	ƛ̓	c̓	č	k̓	k̓ʷ	q̓	q̓ʷ
Fricative				ł	s	š	x	xʷ	x̣	x̣ʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m	n	l		y		w
	glottalized	m̓	n̓	l̓		y̓		w̓

Proto-Sahaptian vowels:

	front	central	back
high	i	ɨ	u
mid			o
low	æ		ɑ

Bibliography

• Aoki, Haruo. 1962. Nez Perce and Northern Sahaptin: A binary comparison. International Journal of American Linguistics 28(3). 172–182.
• Aoki, Haruo (1963). On Sahaptian-Klamath Linguistic Affiliations. International Journal of American Linguistics 29, no. 2: 107–112.
• Aoki, Haruo (1966). Nez Percé vowel harmony and proto-Sahaptian vowels. Language, 42, 759-767.
• Aoki, Haruo (1970). Nez Percé grammar. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 62). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-09259-7.
• Mithun, Marianne (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Rigsby, Bruce (1965). Continuity and change in Sahaptian vowel systems. International Journal of American Linguistics, 31, 306-311.
• Rigsby, Bruce; & Silverstein, Michael (1969). Nez Percé vowels and proto-Sahaptian vowel harmony. Language, 45, 45-59.
• Rude, Noel. (2012). Reconstructing Proto-Sahaptian Sounds. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 32, pp. 292–324. Papers for the Forty-seventh International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, August 3–5, 2012, edited by Joel Dunham, John Lyon & Natalie Weber.