Galice language facts for kids

Galice (pronounced ga-LEES), also called Galice-Applegate or Upper Rogue River, was a language spoken by Native American tribes in southwestern Oregon. It was part of the Athabaskan language family. This language was spoken by two tribes: the Galice tribe and the Applegate tribe.

These tribes lived near the Galice Creek and Applegate River, which are branches of the Rogue River. There were at least two different ways of speaking Galice, called dialects. The Galice Creek dialect is the one we know most about today. Galice is now extinct, meaning it is no longer spoken. The last known speaker, Hoxie Simmons, passed away in 1963.

How Galice Sounds

Every language has its own unique sounds. The study of these sounds is called phonology. Galice had a set of consonant sounds and five main vowel sounds. These vowels could be short or long.

Just like in English, where some sounds can't go together (like "tl" at the start of a word), Galice also had rules for where certain sounds could appear. For example, some sounds could not end a word. Other sound groups were only found at the end of a word.

How Galice Words Are Built

The way words are formed in a language is called morphology. In Galice, words were built using different parts called morphemes. These parts could be stems, prefixes, postpositions, and enclitics.

• Stems are the main part of a word, carrying its basic meaning.
• Prefixes are small parts added to the beginning of a stem to change its meaning.
• Postpositions are like prepositions in English (like "in" or "on"), but they come after the word they relate to.
• Enclitics are small words or parts that attach to the end of another word.

Galice had three main types of words: nouns, verbs, and articles.

• Nouns are words for people, places, or things. In Galice, nouns could only change to show who owned something (like "my house").
• Verbs are action words. Verbs could change to show who was doing the action and when it happened (like past, present, or future).

Galice verbs were quite complex. They were made up of a stem with one or more prefixes added before it. These prefixes could change the meaning or grammar of the verb. There were many different "slots" or positions where these prefixes could go in a verb form.

Number and Person in Galice

Languages have ways to show if something is singular (one) or plural (more than one). They also show "person" – whether the speaker is talking about themselves (first person, "I" or "we"), the listener (second person, "you"), or someone else (third person, "he," "she," "it," or "they").

Showing Number

In Galice, nouns usually didn't change to show if there was one or many. However, words for family members, like "mother" or "brother," sometimes added special endings to show if they were singular or plural.

Showing Person

Galice clearly marked who was doing the action in a sentence.

• First person singular (like "I") was shown with a special prefix, usually "š-".
• First person plural (like "we") used different prefixes, such as "id-" or "i-", depending on the verb.
• Second person singular (like "you," one person) often involved a nasal sound in the prefix.
• Second person plural (like "you," many people) used prefixes like "oʔo-" or "ʔa-".
• Third person singular (like "he," "she," "it") usually didn't have a special mark.
• Third person plural (like "they") used prefixes like "haa-" or "¬hii-".

Classificatory Verbs

Galice had a cool feature called "classificatory verbs." These verbs used special prefixes to describe the shape or type of object being talked about. Imagine if in English, you had to say "I put the round thing on the table" or "I put the long thing on the table" instead of just "I put the ball" or "I put the stick."

In Galice, these class prefixes came right before the main verb stem. There were seven main classes:

• Class I: For a single round object (like a ball).
• Class II: For a long, thin object (like a stick or pencil).
• Class III: For a living being (like a person or an animal).
• Class IV: For a container with things inside it (like a basket of berries).
• Class V: For a fabric-like object (like a blanket or cloth).
• Class VI: For several objects, a mass of something, several people, or a rope-like object.
• Class VII: For an object that looks like a package.