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.

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

Family division
Sahaptian includes two languages:


 * 1. Nez Perce (Niimiipuutímt)
 * 2. Sahaptin (Sħáptənəxw)

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

Proto-Sahaptian consonants:
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan=2 rowspan=2| !! rowspan=2| Bilabial !! colspan=3| Alveolar !! rowspan=2| Post- alveolar !! colspan=2| Velar !! colspan=2| Uvular !! rowspan=2| Glottal ! plain !! lateral !! central !! plain !! labialized !! plain !! labialized ! colspan=2| Stop/Affricate ! colspan=2| Ejective ! colspan=2| Fricative ! rowspan=2| Sonorant !! plain ! glottalized
 * p || t || ƛ || c || č || k || kʷ || q || qʷ || ʔ
 * p̓ || t̓ || ƛ̓ || c̓ || č || k̓ || k̓ʷ || q̓ || q̓ʷ ||
 * || || ł || s || š || x || xʷ || x̣ || x̣ʷ  || h
 * m || n || l || || y ||  || w ||  ||  ||
 * m̓ || n̓ || l̓ || || y̓ ||  || w̓ ||  ||  ||
 * }

Proto-Sahaptian vowels:
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! !! front !! central !! back ! high ! mid ! low
 * i || ɨ || u
 * || || o
 * æ || || ɑ
 * }