Nez Perce language
Nez Perce, also spelled Nez Percé or called nimipuutímt, is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin. Nez Perce comes from the French phrase nez percé, "pierced nose"; however, Nez Perce, who call themselves nimíipuu, meaning "the people", did not pierce their noses. This misnomer may have occurred as a result of confusion on the part of the French, as it was surrounding tribes who did so.
The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family. It is spoken by the Nez Perce people of the Northwestern United States.
Nez Perce is a highly endangered 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 a language revitalization program, but the future of the Nez Perce language is far from assured.
Phonology
The phonology of Nez Perce includes vowel harmony, as well as a complex stress system described by Crook.Consonants
The sounds / / and // only occur in the Downriver dialect.Vowels
Nez Perce has an average-sized inventory of five vowels, each marked for length. Unusually for a five-vowel system, however, it lacks a mid front vowel, with low front 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 or than front. 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.| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | |||
| Mid | |||
| Low |
Stress is marked with an acute accent.
Diphthongs
Nez Perce distinguishes seven diphthongs, all with phonemic length:| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | |||
| Mid | |||
| Low |
Vowel harmony
Nez Perce displays an extensive system of vowel harmony. Vowel qualities are divided into two opposing sets, "dominant" and "recessive". 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 :With very few exceptions, therefore, phonological words may contain only vowels of the dominant or recessive set. Despite occurring in both sets, 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, or tongue root position. To account for this, Katherine Nelson proposes that the two sets be considered as distinct "triangles" of vowel space, each by themselves maximally dispersed, where the dominant set is somewhat retracted in comparison to the recessive:
This dual system would simultaneously explain two apparent phonological aberrances: the absence of a mid front vowel, and the fact that phonemic can be marked either as dominant or recessive. Since the three vowels of a given set are placed with regard to the other vowels of the same set, the low height of the front vowel appears natural against its high counterparts, as in a three-vowel system such as those of Arabic and Quechua. The high front vowel 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.
Syllable structure
The Nez Perce syllable canon is CV. 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.
Writing system
Grammar
As in many other indigenous 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 one word is called polysynthesis. Verbal affixes provide information about the person and number of the subject and object, as well as tense and aspect.Documentation History
developed the Nez Perce grammar by adapting the missionary alphabet used in Hawaiian missions, and adding the consonants s and t. In 1840, Asa Bowen Smith wrote the manuscript for the book Grammar of the Language of the Nez Perces Indians Formerly of Oregon, U.S.. The grammar of Nez Perce has been described in a grammar and a dictionary with two dissertations.Case
Nez Perce nouns are marked for grammatical 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 of tripartite languages.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.
| Ergative | Accusative | Intransitive subject |
| suffix -nim | suffix -ne | |
Verbal morphology
The Nez perce verb encodes number for one or two arguments, and also has a very rich system suffixal system encoding tense, aspect, polarity and associated 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 of periodic tense among the world's languages, including matutinal, diurnal, vesperal, nocturnal and hivernal, as illustrated in the following examples.
The Nez perce verb has three different ways of expressing simulative 'pretend': a suffix -tay, the combination of the reflexive indexation prefix with the 'by mouth' instrumental preverb, and the simulative -né·wi suffix.
Word order
The word order in Nez Perce is quite flexible and serves to introduce information on the topic and focus of a sentence.Verb–subject–object word order
Subject–verb–object word order
'''Subject–object–verb word order'''
In media
The 2010 film Meek's Cutoff features a Cayuse man who speaks the Downriver dialect of Nez Perce.Vowel harmony
- Chomsky, Noam; & Halle, Morris.. Sound pattern of English. Studies in language. New York: Harper & Row.
- Hall, Beatrice L.; & Hall, R. M. R.. Nez Perce vowel harmony: An Africanist explanation and some theoretical consequences. In R. M. Vago, Issues in vowel harmony. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Kim, Chin. 'Diagonal' vowel harmony?: Some implications for historical phonology. In J. Fisiak, Recent developments in historical phonology. The Hague: Mouton.
Language learning materials
Dictionaries and vocabulary
- Aoki, Haruo.. Nez Perce dictionary. University of California publications in linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press..
Grammar
- Aoki, Haruo.. . University of California, Berkeley.
- Aoki, Haruo.. Nez Perce grammar. University of California publications in linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press...
Texts and courses
- Aoki, Haruo.. . University of California publications in linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.., ,
- Aoki, Haruo; & Whitman, Carmen.. Titwáatit: . Anchorage: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, University of Alaska...
- Watters, Mari.. Nez Perce tapes and texts. . Moscow, Idaho: Mari Watters Productions, Upward Bound, College of Education, University of Idaho.