Sahaptian languages facts for kids

Sahaptian (also Sahaptianic, Sahaptin, Shahaptian) is a two-language branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.

The terms Sahaptian (the family) and Sahaptin (the language) have often been confused and used interchangeably in the literature.

Family division

Sahaptian includes two languages:

1. Nez Perce (Niimiʼipuutímt)

2. Sahaptin (Sħáptənəxw)

Nez Perce has two principle dialects, Upper and Lower. Sahaptin has somewhat greater internal diversity, with its main dialects being Umatilla and Yakima.

Nodel Rude's (2012) classification of Sahaptian is as follows.

• Proto-Sahaptian
  • Nez Perce
  • Sahaptin
    • Columbia River dialect
    • Northern dialect
      • Northwest dialect
      • Northeast dialect

Proto-language

Work on Proto-Sahaptian reconstruction has been undertaken by Noel Rude (2006, 2012).

Proto-Sahaptian consonants:

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			plain	lateral	central		plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Stop/Affricate		p	t	ƛ	c	č	k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
Ejective		p̓	t̓	ƛ̓	c̓	č	k̓	k̓ʷ	q̓	q̓ʷ
Fricative				ł	s	š	x	xʷ	x̣	x̣ʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m	n	l		y		w
	glottalized	m̓	n̓	l̓		y̓		w̓

Proto-Sahaptian vowels:

	front	central	back
high	i	ɨ	u
mid			o
low	æ		ɑ

See also

In Spanish: Lenguas sahaptianas para niños