Coast Tsimshian dialect facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tsimshian |
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| Sm'algyax | ||||
| Native to | Canada, United States | |||
| Region | northwest British Columbia, southeast Alaska | |||
| Ethnicity | 8,162 Tsimshian | |||
| Native speakers | 275 in Canada, 3 in the United States (2016 census, 2020) | |||
| Language family |
Tsimshianic
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| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |  Alaska |
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Tsimshian, also called Sm'álgyax by its speakers, is a special language spoken in parts of British Columbia in Canada and Alaska in the United States. The name Sm'álgyax means "real or true language."
Sadly, not many people speak Tsimshian today. In 2003, a language expert named Tonya Stebbins found that only about 200 people or fewer spoke it. Most of these speakers were over 70 years old, and very few were under 50. This means Tsimshian is an endangered language, and efforts are being made to keep it alive.
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How Tsimshian is Written
The way Tsimshian is written today was created by language experts starting in the 1960s. Many people helped, including John A. Dunn and Marie-Lucie Tarpent.
In the early 1990s, they worked with the Tsimshian hereditary chiefs to improve the writing system. This was for a book series called Suwilaay'msga Na Ga'niiyatgm, Teachings of Our Grandfathers.
Today, the Tsimshian Sm'algyax Authority mostly handles how the language is written and recorded. You can even find a special online dictionary called The Living Legacy Talking Dictionary that has both written and spoken examples of Tsimshian.
There's also another way of writing Tsimshian used only in Alaska. It's taught by a group called Dum Baal-dum.
How Tsimshian Words are Built
Tsimshian is a language where words can be quite long. This is because you can add many small parts (called affixes) to a main word to change its meaning. Think of it like adding "un-" or "-ing" to English words, but Tsimshian does this a lot more!
Making Words Plural
In Tsimshian, there are several ways to make words plural (meaning more than one).
Repeating Parts of Words
One common way is by repeating part of a word. This is called Reduplication. It's used for both nouns (like "cat" to "cats") and verbs (like "run" to "runs"). For example:
- If "spit" (verb) is /jeχɬ/, then "spit" (plural) becomes /jiceχɬ/.
- If "fight" is /dal/, then "fights" becomes /dildal/.
Adding Special Words
Sometimes, you add a small word or part of a word to show there's more than one.
- To say "each one his/her own," you might add /g̲a/. So, "heart" (/goot/) becomes "hearts" (/g̲agoot/).
- The word /gyik/, meaning "again," can be added to make some words plural, especially those about time. For example, "summer" (/suunt/) becomes "summers" (/gyiksuunt/).
Words That Don't Change
Some words in Tsimshian stay the same whether they are singular or plural. For example, /lak/ means both "fire" and "fires."
Also, some words have completely different forms for singular and plural. Like "name" (/waa/) becomes /uust/ for "names."
Adding to Words
Tsimshian uses many small parts added to words to change their meaning or how they are used in a sentence. These can be added to the beginning, middle, or end of words.
For example, a part might be added to show that something is a result of an action, or that something is used as a tool. Another part might show that something shares a quality with the main word, like adding a part to "bluejay" to get "blue."
How Tsimshian Sentences Work
Tsimshian has a special way of putting sentences together. It's different from English. In English, we usually say "who did what to whom." In Tsimshian, the order of words can change, but there are still rules.
For simple sentences, the order is often:
- Action, then the person doing it.
* For example: yagwa baas Meli means "Mary is running." (Literally: "Is running Mary.")
For sentences where someone does something to someone or something else, it's a bit more complex:
- Action, then the person doing it, then the thing it's done to.
* For example: ɫadm ḵ'ag̲a 'yuuta liksoog̲ada haḵ'ag̲a means "A man is about to open a door with a key." (Literally: "About to open man door key.")
Numbers and Descriptions
Tsimshian has seven different ways to count things! How you count depends on what you're counting. For example, you count flat objects differently from round objects, and people differently from canoes.
Descriptions (like adjectives) usually come before the noun they describe. So, you'd say "sick dog" instead of "dog sick."
Showing Ownership
To show that something belongs to someone, the owner's name comes after the thing they own. For example, nahoon 'yuuta means "the man's fish."
Using Pronouns
Instead of saying "Mary" or "the man" all the time, Tsimshian uses special word parts (like pronouns) that attach to the verb to show who is doing the action. These parts change depending on who is doing it (I, you, he/she/it, we, they) and how many people there are.
For example:
- ɫadm baayu means "I'm about to run." (The "-u" means "I.")
- ɫa ḵ'olt means "They're just now running." (The "-t" means "they.")
People Who Have Studied Tsimshian
Many smart people have worked hard to study and understand the Tsimshian language. Here are some of them:
- Margaret Seguin Anderson
- William Beynon
- Franz Boas
- John A. Dunn
- Susan Marsden
- Jean Mulder
- Odille Morison
- Bishop William Ridley
- Fumiko Sasama
- Tonya Stebbins
- Marie-Lucie Tarpent
- Donna May Roberts
- Terri Burr
- John Reece
- Victoria Mckoy
- David Lang
- The Haayk Foundation
See also
