Shíshálh language

The shíshálh language, sháshíshálh, she shashishalhem, or Sechelt language , is a Coast Salish language that originates and is spoken within the swiya (world, "Territory") of the shíshálh Nation, located on the Sunshine Coast in southwestern British Columbia, Canada.

In 1999, the language was spoken by fewer than forty elderly people. A grammar guide for the language was published by linguist Ron Beaumont in 1985, based on the Sechelt language course he helped design for local high schools participating in the Native Environmental Studies Program. In 2011, he further published a one thousand-page dictionary.

As of 2019, only two elderly fluent speakers remained. Many teachers are working with children and adults to revitalize the language in local schools, from preschool to post-secondary. Both University of British Columbia and Capilano University offer Sechelt language courses, along with Kinnikinnick Elementary School and Chatelech Secondary School.

In 2014, the Coastal Corridor Consortium, "an entity made up of board members from First Nations and educational partners to improve aboriginal access to and performance in postsecondary education and training", created a Sechelt Nation language certificate that is offered at Capilano University Sunshine Coast Campus in Sechelt.

Sechelt is most closely related to Squamish, Halkomelem, and the Nooksack.

Although critically endangered, the shíshálh people, with help from others, have reclaimed 603 phrases and 5659 words in total and have a published dictionary and grammar.

Consonants
For those IPA symbols that do not match their orthographic counterparts, the orthographic representation is in brackets. This is based on the alphabet created by Randy Bouchard in 1977.

Vowels
The four vowels have numerous allophones when in certain phonetic contexts.

When the /i/ is between voiced back consonants and /ʔ/ it is realized as [e], while when it is between two other consonants it is realized as [i]. If it is between a combination of the two groups it is realized as a vowel in between [i] and [e], usually closer to [e]. The vowel is also realized as [e] when the syllable is unstressed.

The /ə/ is realized as [ɪ] when after ⟨y, ch, ch', sh, k, k'⟩. After consonants with lip rounding it is realized as [ʊ], and after ⟨h, k, ḵ', m, p', t', tl', x̱, ʔ⟩ it is realized as [ʌ]. When /ə/ is in an unstressed syllable between two voiceless consonants it is also voiceless.

The /o/ is realized as a [u] when preceded or followed by a consonant with lip rounding.

The /a/ is realized as [ɒ] when preceded by a consonant with lip rounding and realized as [æ] after the consonants ⟨y, ch, ch', sh, k, k'⟩.

The vowels may also be subject for lengthening, but this is purely for rhetorical purposes. The longer a vowel is held, the more emphatic or dramatic the intended meaning is.

Stress and Syllable Structure
All Sechelt words have at least one stressed syllable, but some words have stress on every syllable. This gives the language its characteristic "choppy" cadence.

In Sechelt, no word can start with a vowel. The glottal stop is used at the beginning of words that would otherwise start with vowels. Further, there can never be two vowel sounds in a row. The glottal stop is often inserted between the two consecutive vowels, such as at the end of a word root and beginning of a suffix. Another solution for consecutive vowels is to omit whichever vowel is unstressed.

Morphology
Like other members of the Salish language family, Sechelt is agglutinative with affixes added to nouns and verbs.

For verbs, suffixes are added to mark the subject and tense, as well as to make the statement a question or add adverbial information. All pronouns in Sechelt are suffixes, while adverbs may be suffixes or their own word that comes before the verb and can take on suffixes of its own. This can be exemplified by two different wordings of the question “Were you afraid?”, with the first one emphasizing the word “afraid” and the second emphasizing that it happened in the past.

ch’ásxém -ulh -á -chexw?

afraid -COMPL -Q -you?

'Were you afraid?'

ku -á -chexw ch’asxém?

PST -Q -you afraid?

'Were you afraid?'

For nouns and verbs, lexical markers are used to convey related meanings. This can be seen in variations on the verb ts'exw get clean/washed:

ts'exw -ál-its'á

get.clean/washed -clothes

'wash clothes; laundry, washing'

ts'ixwálits'á -ten

laundry -device/container

washing machine; washtub'

ts'exw -am -ten

get.clean dish -device/container

'dishpan, sink'

ts'exw -áwtxw

get.clean -room

'bathroom; washroom'

For nouns, possessive markers can be separate words, suffixes, or be both prefixes and suffixes. Forms may differ due to the object's gender and whether it is visible or invisible.

nelh ten sila.

It my grandfather.

'It's my grandfather'

nelh-a tl'ems-tan-s lhems sila?

That-Q house-her our grandma

'Is that our grandmother's house?'

nelh-a ?e s-ch'enu-elap?

it-Q your dog-your?

'Is this your dog?'

Infixes
Commonly in Sechelt, there is no suffix on the verb to convey that the subject is third person singular or plural. However, if the speaker would like to emphasize that the subject is plural they may add -áw- or -íw- as an infix in the middle of the verb or -aw after the verb.

‘é’ílhten

he/she is eating

‘é’ílh-⟨íw⟩-ten

they are eating

Word Order
Sechelt has a Verb-Subject-Object word order, with only select adverbs that are able to go before the verb in a sentence. There is no case marking in the language and a noun's role in the sentence is determined by word order.

While there are both transitive and intransitive verbs in Sechelt, transitive forms are often derived from intransitive forms and have a different ending. For example, the word “kánám” means “to listen” while the word “kánám-mít” means “to listen to/hear.” You can see this below in this sentence that illustrates the word order.

kánám-mít -chen che xwch’énam wéwúm

hear(trans) I the dogs barking

'I hear the dogs barking'

kánám -á -chexw

listen(intrans) question-mkr you

'Are you listening?'While there is no conjugation in Sechelt, nouns can be differentiated based on gender (male or female) and whether the object is visible. This only affects articles and possessive pronouns.