Sahaptin or Shahaptin, endonym Ichishkin, is one of the two-language Sahaptian branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

; the other language is Nez Perce or ''Niimi'ipuutímt''. Many of the tribes that surrounded the land were skilled with horses and trading with one another; some tribes were known for their horse breeding which resulted in today's Appaloosa or

Cayuse horse Cayuse is an archaic term used in the American West, originally referring to a small landrace horse, often noted for unruly temperament. The name came from the horses of the Cayuse people of the Pacific Northwest. The term came to be used in a ...

. The word ''Sahaptin/Shahaptin'' is not the one used by the tribes that speak it, but from the Columbia Salish name, Sħáptənəxw / S-háptinoxw, which means "stranger in the land". This is the name the Wenatchi (in Sahaptin: Winátshapam) and Kawaxchinláma (who speak Columbia Salish) traditionally call the Nez Perce people. Early white explorers mistakenly applied the name to all the various Sahaptin speaking people, as well as to the Nez Perce. Sahaptin is spoken by various tribes of the Washington Reservations; Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla; and also spoken in many smaller communities such as Celilo, Oregon. The

Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their Ya ...

tribal cultural resources program has been promoting the use of the traditional name of the language, ''Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit'' (″this language″), instead of the Salish term ''Sahaptin''.

Tribes and dialects

Sahaptin tribes speak three mutually intelligible dialects: Northern Sahaptin ::Northwest Sahaptin dialects: ::* Kittitas (Upper Yakama) (autonym: Pshwánapam / Pshwanpawam) ::* Lower Yakama (Yakama proper) (autonym: Mámachatpam) ::* Klickitat (Klikatat) (Yakama name: Xwálxwaypam or L'ataxat) :::* Upper Cowlitz (Cowlitz Klickitat, Lewis River Klickitat Band, autonym: Taidnapam / Táytnapam) :::* Upper (Mountain) Nisqually (Meshal / Me-Schal / Mashel / Mica'l Band of Nisqually, autonym: Mishalpam, Yakama name: Mical-ɫa'ma) ::Northeast Sahaptin dialects: ::*

Wanapum The Wanapum tribe of Native Americans formerly lived along the Columbia River from above Priest Rapids down to the mouth of the Snake River in what is now the US state of Washington. About 60 Wanapum still live near the present day site of Priest ...

(Wánapam) ::* Walla Walla (Yakama name: Waluulapan) ::* Palouse (Palus) (Yakama name: Pelúuspem) ::*Lower Snake River :::*Chamnapam :::*Wauyukma :::*Naxiyampam Southern Sahaptin (Columbia River dialects): ::* Umatilla (Rock Creek Indians, Yakama name: Amatalamlama / Imatalamlama) ::*Sk'in/Skin-pah (Sawpaw Band, Fall Bridge, Rock Creek people, Yakama name: K'milláma, perhaps another Tenino subtribe) ::* Tenino (Warm Springs bands) :::*Tinainu (Tinaynuɫáma) or "Dalles Tenino" (Tenino proper) :::*Tygh (Taih, Tyigh) or "Upper Deschutes" (divided into: Tayxɫáma (Tygh Valley), Tiɫxniɫáma (Sherar's Bridge), and Mliɫáma (Warm Spring Reservation) :::*Wyam (Wayámɫáma) or "Lower Deschutes" (Celilo Indians, Yakama name: Wayámpam) :::*Dock-Spus (Tukspush) (Takspasɫáma) or "John Day"

Phonology

The charts of consonants and vowels below are used in the Yakima Sahaptin (Ichishkiin) language:

Consonants

Vowels

Vowels can also be accented (e.g. /á/).

Writing system

This writing system is used for Umatilla Sahaptin.

Grammar

There are published grammars, a recent dictionary, and a corpus of published texts. Sahaptin has a

split ergative In linguistic typology, split ergativity is a feature of certain languages where some constructions use ergative syntax and morphology, but other constructions show another pattern, usually nominative–accusative. The conditions in which ergati ...

syntax, with direct-inverse voicing and several applicative constructions. Rude, 2009. The ergative case inflects third-person nominals only when the direct object is first- or second-person (the examples below are from the Umatilla dialect): The direct-inverse contrast can be elicited with examples such as the following. In the inverse, the transitive direct object is coreferential with the subject in the preceding clause. The inverse (marked by the verbal prefix ''pá-'') retains its transitive status, and a patient nominal is case marked accusative. A semantic inverse is also marked by the same verbal prefix ''pá-''. In Speech Act Participant (SAP) and third-person transitive involvement, direction marking is as follows:

Notes

References

* Beavert, Virginia, and Sharon Hargus (2010). ''Ichishkiin Sɨ́nwit Yakama/Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary''. Toppenish and Seattle: Heritage University and University of Washington Press. * Hargus, Sharon, and Virginia Beavert. (2002). Yakima Sahaptin clusters and epenthetic � ''Anthropological Linguistics'', 44.1-47. * Jacobs, Melville (1929).
Northwest Sahaptin Texts, 1
''University of Washington Publications in Anthropology'' 2:6:175-244. Seattle: University of Washington Press. * Jacobs, Melville (1931).
A Sketch of Northern Sahaptin Grammar
''University of Washington Publications in Anthropology'' 4:2:85-292. Seattle: University of Washington Press. * Jacobs, Melville (1934). ''Northwest Sahaptin Texts''. English language only. ''Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology'' 19, Part 1. New York: Columbia University Press. * Jacobs, Melville (1937). ''Northwest Sahaptin Texts''. Sahaptin language only. ''Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology'' 19, Part 2. New York: Columbia University Press. * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); . * Rigsby, Bruce, and Noel Rude. (1996). Sketch of Sahaptin, a Sahaptian Language. In ''Languages'', ed. by Ives Goddard, pp. 666–692. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. * Rude, Noel. (1988). Pronominal prefixes in Klikitat Sahaptin. In ''Papers from the 1988 Hokan-Penutian Languages Workshop: Held at the University of Oregon, June 16–18, 1988'', compiled by Scott DeLancey, pp. 181–197. Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Papers in Linguistics. * Rude, Noel. (1994). Direct, inverse and passive in Northwest Sahaptin. In ''Voice and Inversion'', ed. by T. Givón. Typological Studies in Language, Vol. 28:101-119. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. * Rude, Noel. (2006).
Proto-Sahaptian vocalism.
''University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics'', Volume 18: 264-277. * Rude, Noel. (2009).

''Northwest Journal of Linguistics'', Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 1–37. * Rude, Noel. (2011).
External possession, obviation, and kinship in Umatilla Sahaptin.
''University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics'', Volume 30: 351-365. * Rude, Noel. (2012).
Reconstructing Proto-Sahaptian Sounds.
''University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics'', Volume 32: 292-324. * Rude, Noel. (2014). ''Umatilla Dictionary''. Seattle & London: University of Washington Press.

External links

* * * * * * * *ELAR archive o
Yakima (Sahaptin) language documentation materials
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Yakama Ichishkíin flashcard decks
{{North American languages Sahaptian languages Indigenous languages of Washington (state) Indigenous languages of Oregon Indigenous languages of Idaho