Saanich (also Sənčaθən, written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography) is the language of the Saanich peoples. Saanich is a member of a dialect continuum called Northern Straits which is a Coast Salishan language. The Northern Straits varieties are closely related to the Klallam language. Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages none stated in law; English is de facto Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6 Area Total  â€¢ Land  â€¢ Water    (% of total)  Ranked 5th 944,735... Official language(s) None Capital Olympia Largest city Seattle Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 18th 184,824 km² 385 km 580 km 6. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a group of languages of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. ... The Coast Salish are a Salishan-speaking First Nations/Native American culture that inhabited an area centered in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and western Washington in the United States for several millennia up to the time of arrival of the Europeans in the 19th century. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs correctly, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ... The District of Saanich is a municipality on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. ... A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. ... The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a group of languages of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. ... A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ... Klallam (also Clallam) is a Straits Salishan language natively called Nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əmúcən, spoken by Klallam peoples. ...

Sounds

Consonants

The 35 consonants of Saanich in orthography with IPA transcription in parentheses: A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

• The orthography of Saanich uses only capital letters (with one exception).
• The orthography is ambiguous with respect to glottalized and non-glottalized sonorants: they are both written with the same letter.

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... Labialisation is secondary articulatory feature of sounds in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... Labialisation is secondary articulatory feature of sounds in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (a movement, a closure) of the glottis (the opening that leads from the nose and mouth cavities into the larynx and the lungs). ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (a movement, a closure) of the glottis (the opening that leads from the nose and mouth cavities into the larynx and the lungs). ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ...

Vowels

Grammar

Metathesis

In Saanich, metathesis is used as a grammatical devise to indicate "actual" aspect. The actual aspect is most often translated into English as a be ... -ing progressive. The actual aspect is derived from the "nonactual" verb form by a CV → VC metathesis process (i.e. consonant metathesizes with vowel). Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

External links

• An Outline of the Morphology and Phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish (1986) (Timothy Montler's site)
  • Phonology
  • Morphology
  • Sample text
• Saanich Classified Word List (1991) (Timothy Montler's site)
• SENĆOŦEN (Saanich, Northern Straits Salish) (Chris Harvey's Native Language, Font & Keyboard)
• Saanich Indian School Board
• SENĆOŦEN Welcome page (First Voices)

Bibliography

• Bill, Adriane; Cayou, Roxanne; & Jim, Jacquelin. (2003). NET<i≯E NEḰA<i≯ SḴELÁLṈEW̲ [One green tree]. Victoria, B.C.: First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation & L̵ÁU,WELṈEW̲ Tribal School. ISBN 1-4120-0626-0.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Montler, Timothy. (1986). An outline of the morphology and phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish. Occasional Papers in Linguistics (No. 4). Missoula, MT: University of Montana Linguistics Laboratory. (Web version of the author's PhD dissertation, University of Hawaii).
• Montler, Timothy. (1996). Languages and dialects in Straits Salishan. Proceedings of the International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages, 31, 249-256.
• Montler, Timothy. (1999). Language and dialect variation in Straits Salishan. Anthropological linguistics, 41 (4), 462-502.
• Thompson, Laurence; Thompson, M. Terry; & Efrat, Barbara. (1974). Some phonological developments in Straits Salish. International Journal of American Linguistics, 40, 182-196.
• YELḰÁTT̵E [Claxton, Earl, Sr.]; & STOLC̸EL̵ [Elliot, John, Sr.]. (1994). Reef Net Technology of the Saltwater People. Brentwood Bay, B.C.: Saanich Indian School Board.