Nez Perce, also spelledNez Percé or callednimipuutímt (alternatively spellednimiipuutímt,niimiipuutímt, orniimi'ipuutímt), is aSahaptian language related to the several dialects ofSahaptin (note the spellings-ian vs.-in). Nez Perce comes from the French phrasenez percé, "pierced nose"; however,Nez Perce, who call themselvesnimíipuu, meaning "the people", did not pierce their noses.^[3] Thismisnomer may have occurred as a result of confusion on the part of the French, as it was surrounding tribes who did so.^[3]

The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of thePlateau Penutian family (which, in turn, may be related to a largerPenutian grouping). It is spoken by theNez Perce people of theNorthwestern United States.

Nez Perce is a highlyendangered language. While sources differ on the exact number of fluent speakers, it is almost definitely under 100. The Nez Perce tribe is endeavoring to reintroduce the language into native usage through alanguage revitalization program, but (as of 2015) the future of the Nez Perce language is far from assured.^[4]

Thephonology of Nez Perce includesvowel harmony (which was mentioned inNoam Chomsky &Morris Halle'sThe Sound Pattern of English), as well as a complexstress system described by Crook (1999).^[5]

The sounds /kʷkʼʷqʷqʼʷ / and /ʃ / only occur in the Downriver dialect.^[6]

Nez Perce has an average-sized inventory of five vowels, each marked forlength. Unusually for a five-vowel system, however, it lacks amid front vowel/e/, with low front/æ/ in its place. Such an asymmetrical configuration is found in less than five percent of the languages that distinguish exactly five vowels, and among those that do display an asymmetry, the "missing" vowel is overwhelmingly more likely to be a back vowel/u/ or/o/ than front/e/. Indeed, Nez Perce's lack of a mid front vowel within a five-vowel system appears unique, and contrary to basic tendencies toward triangularity in the allocation of vowel space. A potential reason for this peculiarity is discussed in the section on vowel harmony below.

Stress is marked with an acute accent⟨á, é, í, ó, ú⟩.

Nez Perce distinguishes sevendiphthongs, all with phonemic length:

Nez Perce displays an extensive system ofvowel harmony. Vowel qualities are divided into two opposing sets, "dominant"/iao/ and "recessive"/iæu/. The presence of a dominant vowel causes all recessive vowels within the same phonological word to assimilate to their dominant counterpart; hence with the addition of the dominant-marked suffix/-ʔajn/:

With very few exceptions, therefore, phonological words may contain only vowels of the dominant or recessive set. Despite occurring in both sets,/i/ is not neutral; instead, it is either dominant or recessive depending on the morpheme in which it occurs.

This system presents a challenge to common concepts of vowel harmony, since it does not appear to be based on obvious considerations of backness, height, ortongue root position. To account for this, Katherine Nelson (2013)^[8] proposes that the two sets be considered as distinct "triangles" of vowel space, each by themselves maximally dispersed, where the recessive set is somewhat retracted (further back) in comparison to the dominant:

This dual system would simultaneously explain two apparent phonological aberrances: the absence of a mid front vowel/e/, and the fact that phonemic/i/ can be marked either as dominant or recessive. Since the three vowels of a given set are placed with regard to the other vowelsof the same set, the low height of the front vowel/æ/ appears natural (that is, maximally dispersed) against its high counterparts/iu/, as in a three-vowel system such as those ofArabic andQuechua. The high front vowel/i/ meanwhile, is retracted much less in the transition from recessive to dominant - little enough that the distinction does not surface phonemically - and therefore can be placed near to the crux around which the triangle of vowel space is "tilted" by retraction.^[8]

The Nez Perce syllable canon is CV(ː)(C)(C)(C)(C). That is, all syllables begin with a single consonant in the onset, followed by a vowel, which may be short or long.Coda sequences may comprise up to four consonants.

There are restrictions to the types of consonants that occur in the coda, both as single segments or in sequences. As a rule, ejective consonants never occur in the coda, and the longer the sequence, the bigger the restriction. The longest coda sequences tend to comprise morphemes. These are summarized in the following table, where ‹C'› represents any ejective consonant.

As in many otherindigenous languages of the Americas, a Nez Perce verb can have the meaning of an entire sentence in English. This manner of providing a great deal of information in oneword is calledpolysynthesis. Verbal affixes provide information about theperson andnumber of thesubject andobject, as well astense andaspect (e.g. whether or not an action has been completed).

Asa Bowen Smith developed the Nez Perce grammar by adapting the missionary alphabet used in Hawaiian missions, and adding the consonants s and t.^[12] In 1840,Asa Bowen Smith wrote the manuscript for the bookGrammar of the Language of the Nez Perces Indians Formerly of Oregon, U.S..^[13] Thegrammar of Nez Perce has been described in a grammar (Aoki 1973) and a dictionary (Aoki 1994) with two dissertations.^[14][5]

Nez Perce nouns are marked forgrammatical case. Nez Perce employs a three-way case-marking strategy: a transitive subject, a transitive object, and an intransitive subject are each marked differently. It is thus an example of the very rare type oftripartite languages (seemorphosyntactic alignment).

Nouns in Nez Perce are marked based on how they relate to the transitivity of the verb. Subjects in a sentence with a transitive verb take the ergative suffix-nim, objects in a sentence with a transitive verb take the accusative suffix-ne, and subjects in sentences with an intransitive verb do not take a suffix.

The Nez perce verb encodes number (and to a lesser extent person) for one or two arguments, and also has a very rich system suffixal system encoding tense, aspect,polarity andassociated motion. In addition, it has a series of hundreds of preverbs encoding instrument, posture and various unusual categories.

In particular, it has one of the richest system ofperiodic tense among the world's languages, including matutinal, diurnal, vesperal, nocturnal and hivernal,^[16] as illustrated in the following examples (examples from Aoki 1994: 751–752, interlinear glosses from Jacques 2023:2-3).

The Nez perce verb has three different ways of expressingsimulative 'pretend': a suffix-tay, the combination of the reflexive indexation prefix with the 'by mouth' instrumental preverb, and the simulative-né·wi suffix.[17]

Theword order in Nez Perce is quite flexible and serves to introduce information on thetopic andfocus of a sentence.

Verb–subject–object word order

Subject–verb–object word order

Subject–object–verb word order

The 2010 filmMeek's Cutoff features aCayuse man (played byRod Rondeaux) who speaks the Downriver dialect of Nez Perce.^[19]

• Aoki, Haruo. (1994).Nez Perce dictionary. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 112). Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN 0-520-09763-7.
• "Nez Perce Literature and vocabulary".Indigenous Peoples' Literature. Retrieved2013-09-21.
• McBeth, Sue."Nez Perce-English Dictionary samples". Retrieved2013-09-21.
• "Nez Perce-English Vocabulary"(PDF).Nez Perce National Historical Park. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on September 25, 2013. Retrieved2013-09-21.
• Morvillo, Anthony (1895).A Dictionary of the Numípu Or Nez Perce Language. St. Ignatius' Mission Print, Montana. Retrieved2013-09-21.
• "Nez Perce Language and the Nez Perce Indian Tribe (Nimipu, Nee-me-poo, Chopunnish, Sahaptin)".native-languages.org. Retrieved2013-09-21.

• Aoki, Haruo. (1965).Nez Perce grammar. University of California, Berkeley.
• Aoki, Haruo. (1970).Nez Perce grammar. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 62). Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN 0-520-09259-7. (Reprinted 1973, California Library Reprint series).
• Missionary in the Society of Jesus in the Rocky Mountains (1891).A Numipu or Nez-Perce grammar. Desmet, Idaho: Indian Boys' Press.ISBN 9780665175299. Retrieved2013-09-21.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

• "Nimipuutimt Calendar and Nez Perce Tribe Language Program". Archived fromthe original on 2013-09-23. Retrieved2013-09-21.
• Aoki, Haruo. (1979).Nez Perce texts. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 90). Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN 0-520-09593-6.,2,3
• Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen. (1989).Titwáatit: (Nez Perce Stories). Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska.ISBN 0-520-09593-6. (Material originally published in Aoki 1979).
• "Nez Perce Language Courses"(Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and American Indian Studies Program, University of Idaho). Retrieved2013-09-21.
• Rockliff, J. A. (1915)."The Life of Jesus Christ from the Four Gospels in the Nez Perce Language". Retrieved2013-09-21.
• "Nez Perce language - Audio Bible stories and lessons".Global Recordings Network. Retrieved2013-09-21.
• "Nez Perce Language Courses"(Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and American Indian Studies Program, University of Idaho). Retrieved2013-09-21.
• "Nez Perce Literature and vocabulary".Indigenous Peoples' Literature. Retrieved2013-09-21.
• Watters, Mari. (1990).Nez Perce tapes and texts. [5 audio cassettes & 1 booklet]. Moscow, Idaho: Mari Watters Productions, Upward Bound, College of Education, University of Idaho.

• "Haruo Aoki Papers on the Nez Perce Language".California Language Archive. Retrieved2013-09-22.
• Nez Perce language videos, YouTube
• Phillip Cash Cash website (Nez Perce researcher)
  • Nez Perce sounds
  • Fox narrative animation (.swf)
  • Nez Perce Verb Morphology (.pdf)
  • wéeyekweʔnipse 'to sing one's spirit song': Performance and metaphor in Nez Perce spirit-singing (.pdf)
  • Tɨmnákni Tímat (Writing from the Heart): Sahaptin Discourse and Text in the Speaker Writing of X̣ílux̣in (.pdf)
• A map of American languages (TITUS project)
• Nez Percé at theRosetta Project
• OLAC resources in and about the Nez Perce language

• Indigenous languages of Idaho
• Nez Perce
• Sahaptian languages
• Vowel-harmony languages
• Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas
• Native American language revitalization
• Endangered languages of the United States

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• Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
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