St'at'imcets (also Lillooet, Lilloet) is an interior Salishan language spoken in southern British Columbia, Canada around the middle Fraser and Lillooet rivers by the St'at'imc people. The Salishan languages are a group of languages of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendour without diminishment) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Area 944,735 km² (5th)  - Land 925,186 km²  - Water 19,549 km² (2. ... For other rivers with this name see Fraser River (disambiguation) The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada, rising in the Rocky Mountains near Mount Robson and flowing for 1400 km (870 mi), into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver. ... Státimc (also Lillooet, Statimcets, Stlatlimx, St’át’imcets, Sƛ’aƛ’imxǝc, Státimc). ...

St'at'imcets is an endangered language with approximately 200 native speakers (Gordon 2005). An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ...

Regional varieties

St'at'imcets has two main dialects:

• Fountain (a.k.a. Upper Lillooet)
• Mount Currie (a.k.a. Lower Lillooet)

Fountain is spoken around Fountain, Pavilion, Lillooet, and neighboring areas. Mount Currie is spoken around Mount Currie and neighboring areas. An additional dialect (or sub-dialect) called Skookumchuck is spoken within the Mount Currie dialect area, but there is no information available in van Eijk (1981, 1997) (which are the main references for this article). Lillooet is located on the banks of the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. ...

Sounds

Consonants

St'at'imcets has 44 consonants: A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture sufficient to cause audible turbulence, at one or more points along the vocal tract. ...

• Obstruents consist of the stops, affricates, and fricatives. There are 22 obstruents.
• Sonorants consist of the nasals and approximants. There are 22 resonants.
• There are four pairs of retracted and nonretracted consonants (which alternate morphophonemically). (Note also that St'at'imcets has retracted-nonretracted vowels.)
  • /ʧ/ - /ʦˠ/
  • /ʃ/ - /sˠ/
  • /l/ - /lˠ/
  • /l’/ - /lˠ’/
• Glottalized stops are pronounced as ejective consonants. Glottalized sonorants are pronounced with creaky voice. Note that St'at'imcets contrasts glottalized sonorants with sequences of sonorants and glottal stops and even sequences of glottalized sonorants and glottal stops, for example, [ɣʷ’] ≠ [ʔɣʷ] ≠ [ɣʷʔ] ≠ [ʔɣʷ’] ≠ [ɣʷ’ʔ].
• The dental approximant /z/ is pronounced alternatively as an interdental fricative [ð] and as a dental fricative [z̪], depending on the dialect of St'at'imcets.
• Among the post-velar consonants, the stops and fricatives [q, qʷ, q’, qʷ’, χ, χʷ] are all uvular while the post-velar approximants [ʕ, ʕʷ, ʕ’, ʕʷ’] are all pharyngeal approximants.

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Dentals are consonants articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both. ... 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). ... 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 a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... Labialisation is a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes 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). ... 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, an obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing the airway. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants that are produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... Creaky voice (also called laryngealisation or vocal fry, especially in the US), is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact, and forming a large, irregularly vibrating... 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. ... A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ...

Vowels

St'at'imcets has 6 vowels:

• The phonetic realization of the phonemes are indicated in brackets to the right.
• All retracted vowels are indicated by a dot under the vowel. These retracted vowels alternate morphophemically. (Note that St'at'imcets has retracted consonants.)
• The retracted vowel /ẹ/ and the non-retracted vowel /a/ are both pronounced [ɛ] (thus there is a phonetic overlap).

A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Orthography

The following table shows the the vowels and consonants and their respective orthographic symbols. The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. ...

Phonological processes

Harmony:

• Within roots, there is a restriction that all consonant and vowel retracted-nonretracted pairs must be of the same type. That is, a root may not contain both a retracted and a nonretracted vowel or consonant. This is a type of vowel-consonant harmony that is an areal feature of this region of North America, shared by other Salishan and non-Salishan languages (for example see Chilcotin#Phonological processes).

• In addition to the root harmony restriction, some suffixes harmonize with the root to which they are attached. For instance, the inchoative suffix /-ɣʷél’x/:

The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... In linguistics, a language is said to possess vowel harmony (also metaphony) when it has a phonological rule that requires all vowels in a word to belong to a single class. ... An areal feature, in linguistics, is the appearance of a given feature of typology in several unrelated languages due to the influence of geographical closeness. ... The Chilcotin (also Tsilhqot’in) are a Northern Athabaskan people that live in British Columbia and Washington. ... Inchoative aspect is a verbal category, referring to an action soon to take place. ...

Grammar

St'at'imcets has two main types of words:

1. full words
   1. variable words
   2. invariable words
2. clitics
   1. proclitics
   2. enclitics

The variable word type may be affected by many morphological processes, such as prefixes, suffixes, infixes, reduplication, and glottalization. In linguistics, a clitic is a word that syntactically functions as a free morpheme, but phonetically appears as a bound morpheme; it is always pronounced with a following or preceding word. ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... Prefix has meanings in linguistics, mathematics and computer science, and telecommunications. ... Suffix has meanings in linguistics and nomenclature. ... Infix has meanings in linguistics, mathematics and computer science, and chemistry. ... Reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated. ...

• question of category of noun

Reduplication

Text

The following is a portion of a story in van Eijk (1981):

St'at'imcets:

Nilh aylh lts7a sMáma ti húz̓a qweqwl’el’tmínan. N̓as ku7 ámlec áku7 tsípunsa. Nilh t’u7 st’áksas ti xláka7sa. Tsicw áku7, nilh t’u7 ses wa7, kwánas et7ú i sqáwtsa. Wa7 ku7 t’u7 áti7 xílem, t’ak ku7 knáti7 ti pú7y̓acwa. Nilh ku7 t’u7 skwánas, lip̓in̓ás ku7. Nilh ku7 t’u7 aylh stsuts: "Wa7 nalh aylh láti7 kapv́ta!" Nilh ku7 t’u7 aylh sklhaka7mínas ku7 láti7 ti sqáwtsa cwilhá k̓a, nao7q̓ spawts ti kwanensása...

English translation:

This time it is Máma I am going to talk about. She went that way to get some food from her roothouse. So she took along her bucket. She got there, and she stayed around, taking potatoes. She was doing that, and then a mouse ran by there. So she grabbed it, she squeezed it. So she said: "You get all squashed now!" So she opened her hand and she let go of what turned out to be a potato, it was a rotten potato that she had caught...

External links

• Bibliography of Materials on the Lillooet Language (YDLI)
• The Lillooet Language (YDLI)
• St'at'imcets - The Lillooet Language
• The St’at’imcets Language (Native Language, Font, & Keyboard)
• USLCES webpages (USLCES webpages)
• Ethnologue: Lillooet

Bibliography

• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Lillooet Tribal Council. (1993). Introducing St'at'imcets (Fraser River Dialect): A primer. Lillooet, British Columbia: Lillooet Tribal Council.
• Poser, William J. (2003). The status of documentation for British Columbia native languages. Yinka Dene Language Institute Technical Report (No. 2). Vanderhoof, British Columbia: Yinka Dene Language Institute. (2003 updated version).
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1985). The Lillooet language: Phonology, morphology, syntax. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1988). Lillooet forms for 'pretending' and 'acting like'. International Journal of Linguistics, 54, 106-110.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1990). Intransitivity, transitivity and control in Lillooet Salish. In H. Pinkster & I. Grenee (Eds.), Unity in diversity: Papers presented to Simon C. Dik on his 50th birthday (pp. 47-64). Dordrecht, Holland: Foris.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1991). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmíc^wts: Teach yourself Lillooet: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for advanced learners. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-9209-3802-7.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1993). CVC reduplication and infixation in Lillooet. In A. Mattina & T. Montler (Eds.), American Indian linguistics and ethnography in honor of Laurence C. Thompson (pp. 317-326). University of Montana occasional papers in linguistics (No. 10). Missoula: University of Montana.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1997). The Lillooet language: Phonology, morphology, syntax. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0625-7. (Revised version of van Eijk 1985).
• Joseph, Marie. (1979). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for beginners. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-9209-3800-0.
• Larochell, Martina; van Eijk, Jan P.; & Williams, Lorna. (1981). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Lillooet legends and stories. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-9209-3803-5.
• Williams, Lorna; van Eijk, Jan P.; & Turner, Gordon. (1979). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for intermediates. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-9209-3801-9.