Southern Tsimshian, (pronounced: ) or ,
is the southern dialect of the
Tsimshian language
The Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in Southeast Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. All Tsimshianic languages are endangered, some with only around 400 speakers. Only around 2,170 ...
, spoken by the
Gitga'ata
The Gitga'at (sometimes also spelled Gitga'ata or Gitk'a'ata) are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, and inhabit the village of Hartley Bay, British Columbia, the name of which in the Tsimshian language is Txa ...
and
Kitasoo The Kitasoo are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian people in Canada, who inhabit, along with the Xai'xais, the village of Klemtu, British Columbia. The name ''Kitasoo'' derives from the Tsimshian name ''Gidestsu'', from ''git-'' (people of) an ...
Tsimshians in
Klemtu
Klemtu is an unincorporated community on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kitasoo Indian Reserve No. 1.
Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians, originally from Kitasu Bay, and ...
,
B.C. It became extinct with the death of the last remaining speaker, Violet Neasloss.
is close to
Coast Tsimshian
Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'algya̱x, is a dialect of the Tsimshian language spoken in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. means literally 'real or true language'.
The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimated the number ...
and has been described as a highly conservative dialect, however the two may not have been mutually intelligible with Coast Tsimshian. The name means "the language beside."
Specialist
John Asher Dunn wrote several articles on the language, from which the term Southern Tsimshian arose.
Notes
Further reading
External links
Visiting with Violet Neasloss in Klemtu{{Penutian languages
Tsimshianic languages
Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Indigenous languages of Alaska
First Nations languages in Canada
Languages extinct in the 2010s
Extinct languages of North America