Moses-Columbia, or Columbia-Wenatchi (in Moses-Columbia: Nxaʔamxcín), is an extinct Southern
Interior Salish
The Interior Salish languages are one of the two main branches of the Salishan language family, the other being Coast Salish. It can be further divided into Northern and Southern subbranches. The first Interior Salish people encountered by Ameri ...
language, also known as ''Nxaảmxcín''. Speakers
traditionally lived in the
Colville Indian Reservation
The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in Washington (state), Washington state, U.S. It is inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which are List of federally recognized tribes in ...
. The Columbia people were followers of
Chief Moses.
There were two dialects, Columbia (Sinkiuse, Columbian) and Wenatchi (Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan). Wenatchi was the heritage language of the
Wenatchi
The Wenatchi people or Šnp̍əšqʷáw̉šəxʷi / Np̓əšqʷáw̓səxʷ ("People in the between") are Native Americans who originally lived near the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers in Central Washington state. Their language ...
,
Chelan, and
Entiat tribes
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
, Columbian of the
Sinkiuse-Columbia
The Sinkiuse-Columbia are a Native American tribe so-called because of their former prominent association with the Columbia River. They belong to the inland division of the Salishan group, with their nearest relatives being the Wenatchis and M ...
.
Pauline Stensgar, who died on May 2, 2023 at age 96, is reported to have been the last known fully fluent speaker.
Phonology
Phonological inventory of the Columbia-Wenatchi dialect:
The three vowels in Moses-Columbia are /i/, /a/, /u/. They are sometimes transcribed as
/i/,
/u/, and
� /a/, and could also tend to sound unstressed, almost as a schwa sound, /ə/.
Vocabulary
Here is a Nxaʔamxcín sample word
* Snkɬxwpáw’stn = ‘clothesline’
(Czaykowska-Higgins & Willett 1997)
References
Further reading
* Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa and Paul Proulx. 2000. "REVIEWS - What's in a Word? Structure in Moses-Columbia Salish". ''International Journal of American Linguistics''. 66, no. 3: 410.
* Kinkade, M. Dale. ''Dictionary of the Moses-Columbia Language (Nxaʔamxcín)''. Nespelem, Wash: Colville Confederated Tribes, 1981.
* Mattina, Nancy. 2006. "Determiner Phrases in Moses-Columbia Salish". ''International Journal of American Linguistics''. 72, no. 1: 97.
*
Interior Salish languages
Indigenous languages of the North American Plateau
Extinct languages of North America
Indigenous languages of Washington (state)
Languages extinct in the 2020s
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