Nuxálk language
Encyclopedia
Nuxálk is a Salishan language
spoken in the vicinity of the Canadian town Bella Coola, British Columbia
by approximately 20-30 elders. Until recently, the language was called Bella Coola, but the native designation Nuxálk is now preferred.
Though the number of truly fluent speakers has not increased, the language is now taught in both the provincial school system and the Nuxálk Nation
's own school, Acwsalcta, which means "a place of learning". Nuxálk language classes, if taken to at least the Grade 11 level, are considered adequate second language qualifications for entry to the major B.C. universities.
bḷ́xʷlá - "stranger".
, surrounded by Wakashan- and Athabascan-speaking tribes. It was once spoken in over 100 settlements, with varying dialects, but in the present day most of these settlements have been abandoned and dialectal differences have largely disappeared.
language family. Its lexicon is equidistant from Coast
and Interior Salish
, but it shares phonological and morphological features with Coast Salish (for example, the absence of pharyngeals, and the presence of marked gender). Nuxálk also borrows many words from contiguous North Wakashan languages (especially Heiltsuk
), as well as some from neighboring Athabascan languages and Tsimshian
.
(Nater 1984, p. 3) postulates the existence of phonemic syllabic consonant
al counterparts of the sonorants -- /m̩, n̩, l̩/ (<ṃ ṇ ḷ>), and /i, u/
(reanalysing them as /j,w/).
By this analysis Nuxálk would only have one phonemic vowel, /a/. (Words claimed to have unpredictable syllabics include
sṃnṃnṃuuc(ts?) 'mute', smṇmṇc(ts?)aw '(the fact) that they are children'.)
/a/ may be pronounced:
/u/ may be pronounced:
is challenged by Nuxálk in that it allows long strings of consonants without any intervening vowel or other sonorant
. Salishan languages
, and especially Nuxálk, are famous for this. For instance, the following word contains only obstruent
s:
Other examples are:
'shape, mold' 'bend' 'bunchberry' 'he arrived' 'little boy' 'saliva' 'northeast wind' 'cut with scissors' 'animal fat' 'that's my animal fat over there' 'seal fat' 'strong' 'go to shore' 'crooked' 'you had seen that I had gone through a passage' (Nater 1984, p. 5)
Linguists disagree as to how to count the syllables in such words, what if anything constitutes the nuclei of those syllables, and if the concept of 'syllable' is even applicable to Nuxálk. Some assign every stop consonant in such words to a separate syllable, whereas others attempt to consolidate them. For example, /tɬ/ 'strong' at first appears to be a single syllable with /ɬ/ as the syllable nucleus. However, [tʰt͡sʰ] 'little boy' (phonemically /tt͡s/) may be thought of as having one syllable or two (/t.t͡s/). If one, /t͡s/ would make an unusual nucleus, with /t/ the syllable onset; and if two, both /t/ and /t͡s/ would be considered nuclei, since most theoretical approaches require every syllable to have a nucleus, as part of the definition of 'syllable'. If that assumption is relaxed, so that Nuxálk syllables can be modeled without nuclei, then /tɬ/ 'strong' could be thought of as onset and coda
of a single syllable, but it would still not be clear if the /t/ and /t͡s/ of 'little boy' should be considered onset and coda of one syllable, or two onset-only syllables.
E.g. ƛ̓ikm-Ø ti-wac̓-tx 'the dog is running'.
Whether the parenthesized segments are included in the suffix depends on whether the stem ends in an underlying resonant (vowel, liquid, nasal) and whether it is non-syllabic. So qāχla 'drink' becomes qāχla-ł 'we drink', qāχla-nap 'you (pl.) drink', qāχla-naw 'they drink', but nuyamł 'sing' becomes nuyamł-ił 'we're singing', nuyamł-ap 'you (pl.) are singing', nuyamł-aw 'they're singing'.
However, the choice of the 3ps marker -Ø or -s is conditioned by semantics rather than phonetics. For example, the sentences tix-s ti-ʔimlk-tx and tix-Ø ti-ʔimlk-tx could both be glossed 'it's the man', but the first is appropriate if the man is the one who is normally chosen, while the second is making an assertion that it is the man (as opposed to someone else, as might otherwise be thought) who is chosen.
The following are the possible person markers for transitive verbs, with empty cells indications non-occurring combinations and '--' identifying semantic combinations which require the reflexive suffix -cut- followed by the appropriate intransitive suffix:
E.g. sp̓-is ti-ʔimlk-tx ti-stn-tx 'the man struck the tree'.
Whether a word can serve as an event isn't determined lexically, e.g. ʔimmllkī-Ø ti-nusʔūlχ-tx 'the thief is a boy', nusʔūlχ-Ø ti-q̓s-tx 'the one who is ill is a thief'.
There is a further causative paradigm whose suffixes may be used instead:
This has a passive counterpart:
This may also have a benefactive gloss when used with events involving less activity of their participant (e.g. nuyamł-tus ti-ʔimlk-tx ti-ʔimmllkī-tx 'the man made/let the boy sing'/'the man sang for the boy'), while in events with more active participants only the causative gloss is possible. In the later group even more active verbs have a preference for the affix-lx- (implying passive experience) before the causative suffix.
The executor in a transitive sentence always precedes the experiencer. However, when an event is proceeded by a lone participant, the semantic content of the event determines whether the participant is an executor or an experiencer. This can only be determined syntactically if the participant is marked by the preposition ʔuł-, which marks the experience.
Some events are inherently transitive or intransitive, but some may accept multiple valencies (e.g. ʔanayk 'to be needy'/'to want [something]').
Prepositions may mark experiencers, and must mark implements. Any participants which are not marked by prepositions are focussed. There are three voices, which allow either the executor, the experiencer, or both to have focus:
The affix -amk- (-yamk- after the antipassive marker -a-) allows an implement to have its preposition removed and to be focused. For example:
The deixis system has a proximal/medial/distal and a non-demonstrative/demonstrative distinction. Demonstratives may be used when finger pointing would be appropriate (or in distal space when something previously mentioned is being referred to).
Proximal demonstrative space roughly corresponds to the area of conversation, and proximal non-demonstrative may be viewed as the area in which one could attract another's attention without raising one's voice. Visible space beyond this is middle demonstrative, space outside of this but within the invisible neighborhood is medial non-demonstrative. Everything else is distal, and non-demonstrative if not mentioned earlier.
The deictic prefixes and suffixes are as follows:
Female affixes are used only when the particular is singular and identified as female; if not, even if the particular is inanimate, masculine or plural is used.
The deictic suffixes only have a proximal vs. non-proximal distinction, and no demonstrative distinction:
tu- is used in earlier varieties and some types of narratives, except for middle non-demonstrative, and the variant ʔił- may be used "in the same collection of deictic space".
While events are not explicitly marked for tense per se, deixis plays a strong role in determining when the proposition is being asserted to occur. So in a sentence like mus-is ti-ʔimmllkī-tx ta-q̓lsxʷ-t̓aχ 'the boy felt that rope', the sentence is perceived as having a near-past (same day) interpretation, as the boy cannot be touching the rope in middle space from proximal space. However this does not hold for some events, like k̓x 'to see'.
A distal suffix on any participant lends the event a distant past interpretation (before the past day), a medial suffix and no distal suffix lends a near past time, and if the participants are marked as proximal the time is present.
Not every distal participant occurs in past-tense sentences, and vice versa—rather, the deictic suffixes must either represent positions in space, time, or both.
The "/-m/" suffix of the Bella Coola language is one of the most puzzling verbal affixes in the language. Some argue that it has varying uses of its morpheme, or that the suffix itself represents different morphemes due to the transitive bases the suffix consists of. The plural of the "/-m/" suffix has no known cognates.
Another suffix of the Bella Coola language is the "/-uks/" suffix. This suffix was never recorded, and the its derivatives are skeptical. Some say that, because of the /-uks/ suffix, Bella Coola influenced the Wakashan and Athapaskan languages, also originating from the British Colombian coast. Others believe, though, that the /-uks/ language used in the Bella Coola language were previously recorded in the Chinook Jargon, thus it was taken from that language. At this point in time, linguists have two stances on this argument: either /-uks/ did originate from the Chinook jargon, or /-uks/ is one of the few elements originating from languages spoken south of the Salishan area of the British Colombia coast, which is difficult to decipher due to the lack of recorded evidence on it. Linguists are unsure what this meaning could bring. An opinion sometimes considered is that people of all the mentioned languages, from Chinook to Bella Coola to Wakashan/Athapaskan, were somehow congregated together, and its people were, for more than a brief amount of time, associated with one another. This could have derived from inter-tribal marriages, which meshed the different structural components of the language to form one unique, syntactical language structure. We cannot testify to this hypothesis, though, due to the lack of archives previously produced/left behind by the people that once spoke these languages fluently.
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
spoken in the vicinity of the Canadian town Bella Coola, British Columbia
Bella Coola, British Columbia
Bella Coola is a community of approximately 600 at the western extremity of the Bella Coola Valley. Bella Coola usually refers to the entire valley, encompassing the settlements of Bella Coola proper , Lower Bella Coola, Hagensborg, Saloompt, Nusatsum, Firvale and Stuie...
by approximately 20-30 elders. Until recently, the language was called Bella Coola, but the native designation Nuxálk is now preferred.
Though the number of truly fluent speakers has not increased, the language is now taught in both the provincial school system and the Nuxálk Nation
Nuxálk Nation
The Nuxalk Nation , also referred to as the Bella Coola or Bellacoola, are an Indigenous First Nation in Canada, living in the area in and around Bella Coola, British Columbia...
's own school, Acwsalcta, which means "a place of learning". Nuxálk language classes, if taken to at least the Grade 11 level, are considered adequate second language qualifications for entry to the major B.C. universities.
Name
The name Nuxálk derives from the native nuχalk 'Bella Coola (place)', while Bella Coola derives from HeiltsukHeiltsuk language
Heiltsuk , also known as Bella Bella and Haihais, is a dialect of the North Wakashan language Heiltsuk-Oowekyala that is spoken by the Haihai and Bella Bella First Nations peoples of the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, around the communities of Bella Bella and...
bḷ́xʷlá - "stranger".
Geographical distribution
Nuxálk is spoken in Bella Coola, British ColumbiaBella Coola, British Columbia
Bella Coola is a community of approximately 600 at the western extremity of the Bella Coola Valley. Bella Coola usually refers to the entire valley, encompassing the settlements of Bella Coola proper , Lower Bella Coola, Hagensborg, Saloompt, Nusatsum, Firvale and Stuie...
, surrounded by Wakashan- and Athabascan-speaking tribes. It was once spoken in over 100 settlements, with varying dialects, but in the present day most of these settlements have been abandoned and dialectal differences have largely disappeared.
Classification
Nuxálk forms its own subgroup of the SalishSalishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
language family. Its lexicon is equidistant from Coast
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
and Interior Salish
Interior Salish
The Interior Salish languages are one of the two main subgroups of the Salishan language family, the other being Coast Salish. It can be further subdivided into Northern and Southern Interior Salish...
, but it shares phonological and morphological features with Coast Salish (for example, the absence of pharyngeals, and the presence of marked gender). Nuxálk also borrows many words from contiguous North Wakashan languages (especially Heiltsuk
Heiltsuk
The Heiltsuk are an Indigenous First Nations of the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, centred on the island communities of Bella Bella and Klemtu. The government of the Heiltsuk people is the Heiltsuk Nation...
), as well as some from neighboring Athabascan languages and Tsimshian
Tsimshian
The Tsimshian are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Tsimshian translates to Inside the Skeena River. Their communities are in British Columbia and Alaska, around Terrace and Prince Rupert and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. There are approximately 10,000...
.
Consonants
The 28 consonants of Nuxálk, with the orthography of (Davis & Saunders 1997, p. 23) when it differs from the IPA. (An alternate orthography without diacritics is shown at the Languagegeek.com link below.):| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular Uvular consonant 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. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central Central consonant A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. The class contrasts with lateral consonants, in which air flows over the sides of the tongue rather than down its center.... |
lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
palatalized Palatalization In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate.... |
labialized Labialisation Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded.The most common... |
plain | labialized | |||||
| Stop | aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
pʰ ⟨p⟩ | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | kʲʰ ⟨k⟩ | kʷʰ ⟨kʷ⟩ | qʰ ⟨q⟩ | qʷʰ ⟨qʷ⟩ | ʔ | ||
| ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
pʼ ⟨p̓⟩ | tʼ ⟨t̓⟩ | kʼʲ ⟨k̓⟩ | kʼʷ ⟨k̓ʷ⟩ | qʼ ⟨q̓⟩ | qʼʷ ⟨q̓ʷ⟩ | ||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
aspirated | t͡sʰ ⟨c⟩ | ||||||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ ⟨c̓⟩ | t͡ɬʼ ⟨ƛ̓⟩ | ||||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
s | ɬ ⟨ł⟩ | xʲ ⟨x⟩ | xʷ | χ | χʷ | (h) | |||
| Sonorant Sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and... |
m | n | l | j ⟨y⟩ | w | |||||
(Nater 1984, p. 3) postulates the existence of phonemic syllabic consonant
Syllabic consonant
A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable on its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. The diacritic for this in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the under-stroke, ⟨⟩...
al counterparts of the sonorants -- /m̩, n̩, l̩/ (<ṃ ṇ ḷ>), and /i, u/
(reanalysing them as /j,w/).
By this analysis Nuxálk would only have one phonemic vowel, /a/. (Words claimed to have unpredictable syllabics include
sṃnṃnṃuuc(ts?) 'mute', smṇmṇc(ts?)aw '(the fact) that they are children'.)
Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | u | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a |
Allophony
/i/ may be pronounced:- [ɪ] before postvelars
- [ɪː, ɛː] between postvelars
- [e̞, e̞ː], before a sonorant followed by a consonant or word boundary
- [i] adjacent to palatovelars
- [e] elsewhere
/a/ may be pronounced:
- [ɑ] ([ɒ]?) surrounded by postvelars
- [ɐ] before rounded velars followed by a consonant or word boundary
- [a] ([ä]?) before a sonorant followed by a consonant or word boundary
- [æ] elsewhere
/u/ may be pronounced:
- [o̞] surrounded by postvelars
- [o̞, o̞ː, ɔ, ɔː] before a sonorant followed by a consonant or word boundary
- [u, ʊ] before rounded velars followed by a consonant or word boundary
- [o] elsewhere
Syllables
The notion of syllableSyllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
is challenged by Nuxálk in that it allows long strings of consonants without any intervening vowel or other sonorant
Sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and...
. Salishan languages
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
, and especially Nuxálk, are famous for this. For instance, the following word contains only obstruent
Obstruent
An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....
s:
- [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]
- 'he had had in his possession a bunchberryBunchberryBunchberry is a common name for two species of dwarf dogwoods:*Cornus canadensis - Canadian or Eastern Bunchberry*Cornus suecica - Eurasian or Northern Bunchberry...
plant.' - (Nater 1984, cited in Bagemihl 1991: 16)
Other examples are:
'shape, mold' 'bend' 'bunchberry' 'he arrived' 'little boy' 'saliva' 'northeast wind' 'cut with scissors' 'animal fat' 'that's my animal fat over there' 'seal fat' 'strong' 'go to shore' 'crooked' 'you had seen that I had gone through a passage' (Nater 1984, p. 5)
Linguists disagree as to how to count the syllables in such words, what if anything constitutes the nuclei of those syllables, and if the concept of 'syllable' is even applicable to Nuxálk. Some assign every stop consonant in such words to a separate syllable, whereas others attempt to consolidate them. For example, /tɬ/ 'strong' at first appears to be a single syllable with /ɬ/ as the syllable nucleus. However, [tʰt͡sʰ] 'little boy' (phonemically /tt͡s/) may be thought of as having one syllable or two (/t.t͡s/). If one, /t͡s/ would make an unusual nucleus, with /t/ the syllable onset; and if two, both /t/ and /t͡s/ would be considered nuclei, since most theoretical approaches require every syllable to have a nucleus, as part of the definition of 'syllable'. If that assumption is relaxed, so that Nuxálk syllables can be modeled without nuclei, then /tɬ/ 'strong' could be thought of as onset and coda
Syllable coda
In phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...
of a single syllable, but it would still not be clear if the /t/ and /t͡s/ of 'little boy' should be considered onset and coda of one syllable, or two onset-only syllables.
Events
The first element in a sentence expresses the event of the proposition. It inflects for the person and number of one (in the intransitive paradigm) or two (in the transitive paradigm) participants.| Intr. inflection | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| First Person | -c | -(i)ł |
| Second Person | -nu | -(n)ap |
| Third Person | -Ø or -s | -(n)aw |
E.g. ƛ̓ikm-Ø ti-wac̓-tx 'the dog is running'.
Whether the parenthesized segments are included in the suffix depends on whether the stem ends in an underlying resonant (vowel, liquid, nasal) and whether it is non-syllabic. So qāχla 'drink' becomes qāχla-ł 'we drink', qāχla-nap 'you (pl.) drink', qāχla-naw 'they drink', but nuyamł 'sing' becomes nuyamł-ił 'we're singing', nuyamł-ap 'you (pl.) are singing', nuyamł-aw 'they're singing'.
However, the choice of the 3ps marker -Ø or -s is conditioned by semantics rather than phonetics. For example, the sentences tix-s ti-ʔimlk-tx and tix-Ø ti-ʔimlk-tx could both be glossed 'it's the man', but the first is appropriate if the man is the one who is normally chosen, while the second is making an assertion that it is the man (as opposed to someone else, as might otherwise be thought) who is chosen.
The following are the possible person markers for transitive verbs, with empty cells indications non-occurring combinations and '--' identifying semantic combinations which require the reflexive suffix -cut- followed by the appropriate intransitive suffix:
| Transitive inflection |
Experiencer: | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Executor | Sg | 1 | -- | -cinu | -ic | -tułap | -tic | ||
| 2 | -cxʷ | -- | -ixʷ | -tułnu | -tixʷ | ||||
| 3 | -cs | -ct | -is | -tułs | -tap | -tis | |||
| Pl | 1 | -tułnu | -ił | -- | -tułap | -tił | |||
| 2 | -cap | -ip | -tułp | -- | -tip | ||||
| 3 | -cant | -ct | -it | -tułt | -tap | -tit | |||
E.g. sp̓-is ti-ʔimlk-tx ti-stn-tx 'the man struck the tree'.
Whether a word can serve as an event isn't determined lexically, e.g. ʔimmllkī-Ø ti-nusʔūlχ-tx 'the thief is a boy', nusʔūlχ-Ø ti-q̓s-tx 'the one who is ill is a thief'.
There is a further causative paradigm whose suffixes may be used instead:
| Transitive inflection |
Experiencer: | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Executor | Sg | 1 | -- | -tuminu | -tuc | -tumułap | -tutic | ||
| 2 | -tumxʷ | -- | -tuxʷ | -tumułxʷ | -tutixʷ | ||||
| 3 | -tum | -tumt | -tus | -tumułs | -tutap | -tutis | |||
| Pl | 1 | -tumułnu | -tuł | -- | -tumułap | -tutił | |||
| 2 | -tumanp | -tup | -tumułp | -- | -tutip | ||||
| 3 | -tumant | -tumt | -tut | -tumułt | -tutap | -tutit | |||
This has a passive counterpart:
| Passive Causative | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| First Person | -tuminic | -tuminił |
| Second Person | -tumt | -tutap |
| Third Person | -tum | -tutim |
This may also have a benefactive gloss when used with events involving less activity of their participant (e.g. nuyamł-tus ti-ʔimlk-tx ti-ʔimmllkī-tx 'the man made/let the boy sing'/'the man sang for the boy'), while in events with more active participants only the causative gloss is possible. In the later group even more active verbs have a preference for the affix-lx- (implying passive experience) before the causative suffix.
The executor in a transitive sentence always precedes the experiencer. However, when an event is proceeded by a lone participant, the semantic content of the event determines whether the participant is an executor or an experiencer. This can only be determined syntactically if the participant is marked by the preposition ʔuł-, which marks the experience.
Some events are inherently transitive or intransitive, but some may accept multiple valencies (e.g. ʔanayk 'to be needy'/'to want [something]').
Prepositions may mark experiencers, and must mark implements. Any participants which are not marked by prepositions are focussed. There are three voices, which allow either the executor, the experiencer, or both to have focus:
- Active voiceActive voiceActive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages....
- neither is marked with prepositions. - Passive voice - the event may have different suffixes, and the executor may be omitted or marked with a preposition
- Antipassive voiceAntipassive voiceThe antipassive voice is a verb voice that works on transitive verbs by deleting the object. This construction is similar to the passive voice, in that it decreases the verb's valency by one - the passive by deleting the subject , the antipassive by deleting the object The antipassive voice...
- the event is marked with the affix -a- before personal markers, and the experiencer is marked with a preposition
The affix -amk- (-yamk- after the antipassive marker -a-) allows an implement to have its preposition removed and to be focused. For example:
- nuyamł-Ø ti-man-tx ʔuł-ti-mna-s-tx x-ti-syut-tx 'the father sang the song to his son'
- nuyamł-amk-is ti-man-tx ti-syut-tx ʔuł-ti-mna-s-tx 'the father sang the song to his son'
Prepositions
There are four prepositions which have broad usage in Nuxálk:| Prepositions | Proximal | Distal |
|---|---|---|
| Stative | x- | ʔał- |
| Active | ʔuł- | wixłł- |
Deixis
Nuxálk has a set of deictic prefixes and suffixes which serve to identify items as instantiations of domains rather than domains themselves and to locate them in deictic space. Thus the sentences wac̓-Ø ti-ƛ̓ikm-tx and ti-wac̓-Ø ti-ƛ̓ikm-tx, both 'the one that's running is a dog', are slightly different - similar to the difference between the English sentences 'the visitor is Canadian' and 'the visitor is a Canadian' respectively.The deixis system has a proximal/medial/distal and a non-demonstrative/demonstrative distinction. Demonstratives may be used when finger pointing would be appropriate (or in distal space when something previously mentioned is being referred to).
Proximal demonstrative space roughly corresponds to the area of conversation, and proximal non-demonstrative may be viewed as the area in which one could attract another's attention without raising one's voice. Visible space beyond this is middle demonstrative, space outside of this but within the invisible neighborhood is medial non-demonstrative. Everything else is distal, and non-demonstrative if not mentioned earlier.
The deictic prefixes and suffixes are as follows:
| Deictic Suffixes |
Proximal | Medial | Distal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Demon- strative |
Demon- strative |
Non-Demon- strative |
Demon- strative |
Non-Demon- strative |
Demon- strative |
|
| Masculine | -tx | -t̓ayx | -ł | -t̓aχ | -tχ | -taχ |
| Feminine | -cx | -c̓ayx | -ł | -ʔiłʔaył | -ʔił | -ʔił |
| Plural | -c | -ʔac | -ł | -t̓aχʷ | -tχʷ | -tuχ |
Female affixes are used only when the particular is singular and identified as female; if not, even if the particular is inanimate, masculine or plural is used.
The deictic suffixes only have a proximal vs. non-proximal distinction, and no demonstrative distinction:
| Deictic Prefixes |
Proximal | Medial and Distal |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | ti- | ta- |
| Feminine | ci- | ła- (ʔił-) |
| Plural | wa- | ta- (tu-) |
tu- is used in earlier varieties and some types of narratives, except for middle non-demonstrative, and the variant ʔił- may be used "in the same collection of deictic space".
While events are not explicitly marked for tense per se, deixis plays a strong role in determining when the proposition is being asserted to occur. So in a sentence like mus-is ti-ʔimmllkī-tx ta-q̓lsxʷ-t̓aχ 'the boy felt that rope', the sentence is perceived as having a near-past (same day) interpretation, as the boy cannot be touching the rope in middle space from proximal space. However this does not hold for some events, like k̓x 'to see'.
A distal suffix on any participant lends the event a distant past interpretation (before the past day), a medial suffix and no distal suffix lends a near past time, and if the participants are marked as proximal the time is present.
Not every distal participant occurs in past-tense sentences, and vice versa—rather, the deictic suffixes must either represent positions in space, time, or both.
The "/-m/" suffix of the Bella Coola language is one of the most puzzling verbal affixes in the language. Some argue that it has varying uses of its morpheme, or that the suffix itself represents different morphemes due to the transitive bases the suffix consists of. The plural of the "/-m/" suffix has no known cognates.
Another suffix of the Bella Coola language is the "/-uks/" suffix. This suffix was never recorded, and the its derivatives are skeptical. Some say that, because of the /-uks/ suffix, Bella Coola influenced the Wakashan and Athapaskan languages, also originating from the British Colombian coast. Others believe, though, that the /-uks/ language used in the Bella Coola language were previously recorded in the Chinook Jargon, thus it was taken from that language. At this point in time, linguists have two stances on this argument: either /-uks/ did originate from the Chinook jargon, or /-uks/ is one of the few elements originating from languages spoken south of the Salishan area of the British Colombia coast, which is difficult to decipher due to the lack of recorded evidence on it. Linguists are unsure what this meaning could bring. An opinion sometimes considered is that people of all the mentioned languages, from Chinook to Bella Coola to Wakashan/Athapaskan, were somehow congregated together, and its people were, for more than a brief amount of time, associated with one another. This could have derived from inter-tribal marriages, which meshed the different structural components of the language to form one unique, syntactical language structure. We cannot testify to this hypothesis, though, due to the lack of archives previously produced/left behind by the people that once spoke these languages fluently.
Pronouns
| Pronouns | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker | ʔnc | łmił |
| Listener | ʔinu | łup |
| Non-speaker/ listener |
tix,cix | wix |
Particles
| Particle | Label | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| kʷ | Quotative Quotative A quotative is grammatical device to mark reported speech in some languages. It can be equated with "spoken quotation marks". In the English sentence John said "Wow,"... |
'he said' |
| ma | Dubitative | 'maybe' |
| ʔalu | Attemptive | 'try' |
| ck | Inferential Dubitative | 'I figure' |
| cakʷ | Optative | 'I wish/hope' |
| su | Expectable | 'again' |
| tu | Confirmative | 'really' |
| ku | Surprisative | 'so' |
| lu | Expective | 'expected' |
| a | Interrogative | [yes/no questions] |
| c̓ | Perfective | 'now' |
| c̓n | Imperfective | 'now' |
| k̓ʷ | Usitative | 'usually' |
| mas | Absolutive | 'always' |
| ks | Individuative | 'the one' |
| łū | Persistive | 'still, yet' |
| tū | Non-contrastive conjunction |
'and' |
| ʔi...k | Contrastive conjunction |
'but' |