Nuxalk
Bella Coola
ItNuxalkmc[1]
Native to	Canada
Region	Bella Coola area,Central Coast region,British Columbia
Ethnicity	1,660Nuxalk (2014,FPCC)[2]
Native speakers	17 (2014,FPCC)[2]
Language family	Salishan Nuxalk
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	blc
Glottolog	bell1243
ELP	Nuxalk
Bella Coola is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

Nuxalk (/ˈnuːhɒlk/NOO-halk), also known asBella Coola/ˈbɛlə.ˈkuːlə/, is aSalishan language spoken by theNuxalk people. Today, it is an endangered language in the vicinity of the Canadian town ofBella Coola,British Columbia.^[3][4] While the language is still sometimes calledBella Coola by linguists, the native nameNuxalk is preferred by some, notably by theNuxalk Nation's government.^[5][1]

Though the number of truly fluent speakers has not increased, the language is now taught in both theprovincial school system and the Nuxalk Nation's own school,Acwsalcta, which means 'a place of learning'. Nuxalk 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.CKNN-FM Nuxalk Radio is also working to promote the language.

The name "Nuxalk" for the language comes from the nativenuxalk (ornuχalk), referring to theBella Coola Valley.^[6] "Bella Coola" is a rendering of theHeiltsukbḷ́xʷlá, meaning 'stranger'.^[7]

Nowadays, Nuxalk is spoken only inBella Coola, British Columbia, surrounded byWakashan- andAthabascan-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.^[7]

Nuxalk forms its own subgroup of theSalish language family. Its lexicon is equidistant fromCoast andInterior Salish, but it shares phonological and morphological features with Coast Salish (e.g., the absence ofpharyngeals and the presence of markedgender). Nuxalk also borrows many words from contiguousNorth Wakashan languages (especiallyHeiltsuk), as well as some from neighbouringAthabaskan languages andTsimshian.^[7]

Nuxalk has 29 consonants depicted below in IPA and theAmericanist orthography of Davis & Saunders when it differs from the IPA.

What are transcribed in the orthography as 'plain' velar consonants are actually palatals, and the sibilantsscc̓ palatalize toščč̓ beforexkk̓.

/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

/o/ 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^[8]

In addition to the Americanist orthography of Davis & Saunders used in this article for clarity, Nuxalk also has a non-diacritical Bouchard-type practical orthography that originated in Hank Nater'sThe Bella Coola Language (1984), and was used in his 1990Nuxalk-English Dictionary. It continues to be used today atAcwsalcta for Nuxalk language learning, as well as in Nuxalk documents and names.^[9] The orthographic variants are summarized below.

Notes

• The Nuxalk alphabet lacks ten letters:B,D,E,F,G,J,O,R,V, andZ. However, these letters are often used for foreign loanwords or may be kept for foreign names.
  • These letters also are often replaced by other letters (e.g. ⟨p⟩ for ⟨b⟩, ⟨f⟩, and ⟨v⟩, ⟨t⟩ for ⟨d⟩, ⟨i⟩ for ⟨e⟩, ⟨k⟩ for ⟨g⟩, ⟨c⟩ for ⟨j⟩, ⟨u⟩ for ⟨o⟩, ⟨l⟩ for ⟨r⟩, and ⟨s⟩ for ⟨z⟩).

The notion ofsyllable is challenged by the Nuxalk language, in that the language includes long strings ofconsonants without any intervening vowel or othersonorant.Salishan languages, and especially Nuxalk, are famous for this. For instance, the following word contains onlyobstruents:

Some examples are:

• ps[pʰs] 'shape, mold'
• p’s[pʼs] 'bend'
• p’xwlht[pʼχʷɬtʰ] 'bunchberry'
• tsktskwts[t͡sʰkʰtʰskʷʰt͡sʰ] 'he arrived'
• tts[tʰt͡sʰ] 'little boy'
• skwp[skʷʰpʰ] 'saliva'
• sps[spʰs] 'northeast wind'
• tlh’p[tɬʼpʰ] 'cut with scissors'
• sts’q[st͡sʼqʰ] 'animal fat'
• sts’qtstc[st͡sʼqʰt͡sʰtʰx] 'that's my animal fat over there'
• scs[sxs] 'seal fat'
• tlh[tʰɬ] 'strong'
• q’t[qʼtʰ] 'go to shore'
• qwt[qʷʰtʰ] 'crooked'
• k’clhhtscwslhxwtlhhts[kʼxɬːtʰsxʷ.sɬχʷtʰɬːt͡s] 'you had seen that I had gone through a passage'^[8]

There has been some dispute as to how to count syllables in such words, what, if anything, constitutes thenuclei of those syllables, and if the concept of 'syllable' is even applicable to Nuxalk. However, when recordings are available, the syllable structure can be clearly audible, and speakers have clear conceptions as to how many syllables a word contains. In general, a syllable may beC̩,CF̩ (where F is a fricative),CV, orCVC. When C is a stop, CF syllables are always composed of a plain voiceless stop (pʰ,tʰ,t͡sʰ,kʰ,kʷ,qʰ,qʷ) plus a fricative (s,ɬ,x,xʷ,χ,χʷ). For example,płt 'thick' is two syllables,pʰɬ.t, with a syllabic fricative, while intʼχtʰ 'stone',stʼs 'salt',qʷtʰ 'crooked',k̓ʰx 'to see' andɬqʰ 'wet' each consonant is a separate syllable. Stop-fricative sequences can also be disyllabic, however, as intɬ 'strong' (two syllables, at least in the cited recording) andkʷs 'rough' (one syllable or two). Syllabification of stop-fricative sequences may therefore be lexicalized or a prosodic tendency. Fricative-fricative sequences also have a tendency toward syllabicity, e.g. withsx 'bad' being one syllable or two, andsχs 'seal fat' being two syllables (sχ.s) or three. Speech rate plays a role, with e.g.ɬxʷtʰɬt͡sʰxʷ 'you spat on me' consisting of all syllabic consonants in citation form (ɬ.xʷ.tʰ.ɬ.t͡sʰ.xʷ) but condensed to stop-fricative syllables (ɬxʷ.tɬ.t͡sʰxʷ) at fast conversational speed.^[11]This syllabic structure may be compared withthat of Miyako.

The linguist Hank Nater has postulated the existence of a phonemic contrast betweensyllabic and non-syllabicsonorants:/m̩,n̩,l̩/, spelledṃ, ṇ, ḷ. (The vowel phonemes/i,u/ would then be the syllabic counterparts of/j,w/.)^[12] Words claimed to have unpredictable syllables includesṃnṃnṃuuc 'mute',smṇmṇcaw '(the fact) that they are children'.^[13]

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.

E.g.ƛ̓ikm-Øti-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. Soqāχla 'drink' becomesqāχla-ł 'we drink',qāχla-nap 'you (pl.) drink',qāχla-naw 'they drink', butnuyamł 'sing' becomesnuyamł-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 sentencestix-sti-ʔimlk-tx andtix-Øti-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 theman (as opposed to someone else, as might otherwise be thought) who is chosen.^{[further explanation needed]}

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-isti-ʔimlk-txti-stn-tx 'the man struck the tree'.

Whether a word can serve as an event is not determined lexically, e.g.ʔimmllkī-Øti-nusʔūlχ-tx 'the thief is a boy',nusʔūlχ-Øti-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-tusti-ʔimlk-txti-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 prepositionʔuł-, 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 arefocussed. There are three voices, which allow either the executor, the experiencer, or both to have focus:

• Active voice – 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 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-Øti-man-txʔuł-ti-mna-s-txx-ti-syut-tx 'the father sang the song to his son'
• nuyamł-amk-isti-man-txti-syut-txʔuł-ti-mna-s-tx 'the father sang the song to his son'

There are four prepositions which have broad usage in Nuxalk:

Nuxalk has a set ofdeictic 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 sentenceswac̓-Øti-ƛ̓ikm-tx andti-wac̓-Øti-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.^[19]

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 prefixes 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 variantʔił- 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 likemus-isti-ʔimmllkī-txta-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, likek̓x 'to see'.^[22]

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 musteither represent positions in space, time,or both.

Personal pronouns are reportedly nonexistent but the idea is expressed via verbs that translate as "to be me", etc.^[23]

• Coast Salish languages
• Interior Salish

• Bagemihl, Bruce (1991a)."Syllable Structure in Bella Coola".Proceedings of the North East Linguistics Society.21:16–30.hdl:20.500.14394/36612.
• Bagemihl, Bruce (1991b). "Syllable Structure in Bella Coola".Linguistic Inquiry.22 (4):589–646.JSTOR 4178744.
• Bagemihl, Bruce (1998). "Maximality in Bella Coola (Nuxalk)". In Czaykowska-Higgins, E.; Kinkade, M. D. (eds.).Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 71–98.doi:10.1515/9783110801255.71.ISBN 978-3-11-015492-4.
• Bauer, Laurie (2007).The Linguistics Student's Handbook. Edinburgh.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Bhat, D.N.S. (2004).Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross (1973). "Lexical Suffix Copying in Bella Coola".Glossa.7:231–252.
• Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross (1975). "Bella Coola Nominal Deixis".Language.51 (4):845–858.doi:10.2307/412696.JSTOR 412696.
• Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross (1976). "Bella Coola Deictic Roots".International Journal of American Linguistics.42 (4):319–330.doi:10.1086/465436.S2CID 145541460.
• Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross (1978). "Bella Coola Syntax". In Cook, E.-D.; Kaye, J. (eds.).Linguistic Studies of Native Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia. pp. 37–66.
• Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross (1980).Bella Coola Texts. British Columbia Provincial Museum Heritage Record. Vol. 10. Victoria: British Columbia Provincial Museum.ISBN 0-7718-8206-8.
• Davis, Philip W.; Saunders, Ross (1997).A Grammar of Bella Coola. University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics. Vol. 13. Missoula, MT: University of Montana.ISBN 1-879763-13-3.
• Forrest, Linda (1994). "The de-transitive clauses in Bella Coola: Passive vs. inverse". In Givón, T. (ed.).Voice and Inversion. Amsterdam: Benjamins. pp. 147–168.
• Hoard, James (1978). "Syllabification in Northwest Indian Languages". In Bell; Bybee-Hooper (eds.).Syllables and Segments. pp. 67–68.
• Mithun, Marianne (1999).The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-23228-7.
• Montler, Timothy. (2004–2005). (Handouts on Salishan Language Family).
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• Nater, Hank F. (1984).The Bella Coola Language. Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service. Vol. 92. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
• Nater, Hank F. (1990).A Concise Nuxalk–English Dictionary. Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service. Vol. 115. Hull, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization.ISBN 0-660-10798-8.
• Newman, Stanley (1947). "Bella Coola I: Phonology".International Journal of American Linguistics.13 (3):129–134.doi:10.1086/463942.S2CID 144523894.
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Nuxalk language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Nuxalk Nation Website
• First Nations Languages of British Columbia Nuxalk page
• Nuxalk bibliography
• Nuxalk information at LanguageGeek.

• UCLA Archive for Bella Coola
• Bella Coola (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)

• Nuxalk
• Salishan languages
• Agglutinative languages
• Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast
• First Nations languages in Canada
• Critically endangered languages

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