Okanagan language
Okanagan, or Colville-Okanagan, or Nsyilxcən (n̓səl̓xcin̓), is a Salish language which arose among the indigenous peoples of the southern Interior Plateau region based primarily in the Okanagan River Basin and the Columbia River Basin in precolonial times in Canada and the United States. Following British, American, and Canadian colonization during the 1800s and the subsequent assimilation of all Salishan tribes, the use of Colville-Okanagan declined drastically. Colville-Okanagan is highly endangered and is rarely learned as either a first or second language. About 150 deeply fluent speakers of Colville-Okanagan Salish remain, the majority of whom  live in British Columbia. The language is currently moribund and has no first-language speakers younger than 50 years of age. Colville-Okanagan is the second-most spoken Salish language after Shuswap. History and description. Historically, Colville-Okanagan originated from a language which was spoken in the Columbia River Basin and is now termed Proto Southern Interior Salish. As a result of the initial expansion of Colville-Okanagan prior to European contact, the language developed three separate dialects: Colville, Okanagan, and Lakes. A low degree of dialectic divergence exists in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Variation is primarily confined to  pronunciation. The vast majority of Colville-Okanagan words are from Proto-Salish or Proto-Interior Salish. A number of Colville-Okanagan words are shared with or borrowed from the neighboring Salish, Sahaptian, and Kutenai languages. More recent loanwords are from English and French. Colville-Okanagan was an exclusively oral form of communication until the late 19th century, when priests and linguists began transcribing the language for word lists, dictionaries, grammars, and translations. Colville-Okanagan is currently written in Latin script using the American Phonetic Alphabet. In Colville-Okanagan the language itself is known as "n̓səl̓xcin̓" or "nsyilxcn". Speakers of "n̓səl̓xcin̓  occupied the northern portion of the Columbia Basin from the Methow River in the west, to Kootenay Lake in the east, and north along the Columbia River and the Arrow Lakes. In Colville-Okanagan, all nsyilxcn"-speaking bands are grouped under the ethnic label "syilx". Colville-Okanagan is the heritage language of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, the Westbank First Nation, the Osoyoos Indian Band, the Penticton Indian Band, the Okanagan Indian Band, the Upper Nicola Indian Band, and the Colville, Sanpoil, Okanogan, Lakes, Nespelem, and Methow bands of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation . Revitalization. In 2012, the CBC featured a report on a family which is teaching its children "n̓səl̓xcin̓" in the home. Five nonprofit organizations which support Colville-Okanagan language acquisition and revitalization are the Paul Creek Language Association in Keremeos, British Columbia, the En'owkin Centre in Penticton, British Columbia, the Hearts Gathered Waterfall Montessori in Omak, Washington, the Salish School of Spokane in Spokane, Washington, and the Inchelium Language and Culture Association in Inchelium. Revitalization in the United States. Revitalization efforts for Colville-Okanagan in the United States are limited largely to instruction for children. However, concentrated efforts are made on  the part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to promote language preservation. Among the activities in which the Confederation takes part are allocating funds both local and federal for cultural preservation projects. The Confederated Tribes' goals are to establish three language programs, develop language dictionaries, provide translation services and curriculum, and establish language classes with a regular attendance of 30 or more people. Though the Confederation's efforts are laudable, the limitations of 150 truly native speakers are evident. Language revitalization on the scale the Confederation proposes is limited by the number of native speakers available for those  projects. Despite the confederation's efforts, language revitalization cannot be reproduced on such a large scale in the short run. The Salish School of Spokane in Washington takes a smaller approach towards revitalization. This school caters to the Colville-Okanagan-speaking population in the tribal regions of northeastern Washington. This school's efforts fall under the category of full-immersion school. The Salish School's target demographic is children between the ages of one and 10 years old. This places the Salish School of Spokane in the children revitalization group of schools. The school's programs are designed to  spur full native fluency in Okanagan before the age of 10. The school does this by offering classes in Okanagan from 9 am to 3:15 pm. According to school expectations and curricula, children are expected to speak Okanagan for the duration of their time in school. In addition, the school is committed to an active learning strategy, that is, children are taught common nursery rhythms (heads, shoulders, knees, and toes) that engage the learner's body. The Salish School of Spokane makes a point of not falling into the trap of monopolizing teaching resources. Unlike Walsh's examples of tribes  opting to not share materials, the Salish School maintains a variety of audio resources and curricula to advance Okanagan revitalization. Along with these efforts, the school not only provides curriculum, but also helps develop and translate it. The Salish School works alongside organizations such as the Paul Creek Language Association, a nonprofit based in British Columbia, on the N̓səl̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project. The N̓səl̓xcin̓ Project aims to create foundational lesson plans from which teachers of Okanagan can draw. The project is spearheaded by Christopher Parkin, and is translated primarily by the fluent elder Sarah Peterson, with the additional help of Hazel  Abrahamson and Herman Edwards. The participation of native speakers ensures clear meaning and high fidelity to the Okanagan language. The project is composed of six textbooks divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each level consists of a language book which contains a number of audio recordings, language, and learning software to ease language teaching. Additionally, each level includes a literature book. The literature book provides the vital function of providing entertainment for language learners when outside of class and also reinforces sentence construction for Okanagan. The project also contains daily quizzes, midterm-style tests, and both oral and  written final exams for evaluation. Most importantly, the curriculum developed by the N̓səl̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project is available in electronic format online free of charge. Revitalization in Canada. To encourage interest in teaching vocations, the En'Owkin places a strong emphasis on its various certification programs. The Certificate of Aboriginal Language Revitalization is offered in the En'Owkin Centre and is taught by linguist Maxine Baptiste. The course does have a fee involved, but the certificate is offered in partnership with the University of Victoria. Additionally, the center also offers a certification to become a Certified Early Childhood Education Assistant which is in  partnership with Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. The certificate does not qualify one to teach at the secondary level, but does ensure employability in daycare and pre-K. The strategy behind these two certificates ensures that potential teachers have easy access to college credits from centers of higher learning like the University of Victoria, and potential education assistants can be involved in the education of children, thus establishing fluency in Okanagan early on. Finally, the En'Owkin Centre places a heavy emphasis on its college readiness programs. The importance of these programs lies not only in setting up native students for  success, but also incorporating Colville-Okanagan courses into curriculum for young adult to adult students. William Cohen notes in his article, that many native students perform poorly in school and the high school dropout rate for aboriginal high schoolers is very high. Additionally, a Syilx Language House was developed in 2015 in British Columbia. The goal of the house is to create 10 fluent Nsyilxcen speakers in four years. In this program, participants spend 2000 hours over four years learning Nsyilxcen via a variety of different teaching methods, regular assessments, frequent visits from Elders, and full immersion. Following completion of  the program in 2020, the Syilx Language House is hoping to expand by developing more language houses across the Okanagan and will increase the goal to creating 100 new Nsyilxcen speakers in the 2020 cohort. Orthography. The Paul Creek Language Association uses this alphabet: The letters with acute accent "á", "ə́", "í", and "ú" are not counted as separate letters in this alphabet. The Westbank First Nation uses this alphabet, in which the letters with acute accent are counted as separate letters: Phonology. Consonants. Consonant inventory of Okanagan: Vowels. The vowels found in Lakes are: [i], [a], [u], [ə], and  [o]. Stress will fall only on the full vowels [i], [a], and [u] in Okanagan. Morphology. The morphology of Okanagan is fairly complex. It is a head-marking language that relies mostly on grammatical information being placed directly on the predicate by means of affixes and clitics. The combination of derivational and inflectional suffixes and prefixes that are added onto the stem words make for a compact language. Person markers. Okanagan demonstrates great flexibility when dealing with persons, number, and gender. The language encodes the person via a series of prefixes and suffixes, and uses its number system in tandem  with pluralized pronominals to communicate the number of actors within a sentence. For example: In this example the /k/ classification designates that the word contains a numeral classifier. Additionally, Okanagan relies heavily on the use of suffixes to designate gender. Okanagan handles gender in much the same way, by attaching both determiner and ‘man' to the sentence, the gender of an object or subject can be communicated: In this example, there is a combination of 2nd singular marker with ‘wife.' ‘She' is encoded into the meaning of the word via the inclusion of the gender suffix at the end of  the sentence. Person markers within Okanagan are attached to verbs, nouns, or adjectives. The marker used depending on transitivity of verbs and other conditions outlined below. The person maker used largely depends on the case being used in the sentence. Absolutive case. Absolutive markers within Okanagan can only be used if the predicate of the sentence is intransitive. For example, [Kən c'k-am] (I count) is perfectly viable in Okanagan, but *[Kən c'k-ən-t] *(I count it)is not because the verb 'count' is transitive. Person markers never occur without an accompanying intransitive verb. Possessive case. Simple possessives within Okanagan  are predominantly a result of prefixation and circumfixation on a verb. However, Okanagan uses simple possessives as aspect forms on the verb in very complex ways. This practice is predominantly seen in Southern interior Salish languages. Where prefixation occurs with -in / an in the 1st and 2nd person singular, /n/ may undergo deletion as below: Ergative case. In the case of verbs, Okanagan morphology handles transitivity in various ways. The first is a set of rules for verbs that only have a single direct object, transitive verbs. For the ergative case there are two variants of person markers a stressed  and an unstressed. Stressed and Unstressed The stem: c'k-ən-t is the equivalent of the transitive verb 'count.' wikn̓t (see it) is an example of a strong -nt- transitive past/present verb, with 'XX' identifying non-occurring combinations and '--' identifying semantic combinations which require the reflexive suffix -cut- Accusative case. There are two sets of verb affixes each containing two members that dictate the composition of a verb. The first set is composed of the affixes –nt-, and -ɬt-. The second set is composed of –st- and x(i)t- where ‘i' is a stressed vowel. The major difference between two  sets is how they incorporate affixes to remain grammatically correct. In the case of the –nt-, -ɬt- group, all particles and suffixes joining onto the stem and suffix of the verb will be identical for both. The –nt- affix connects to the stem of a transitive verb via suffixation. The suffix –nt- can only make reference to two persons: an actor and a primary goal. q̓y̓əntin q'y'-ənt-in (I write something) The -ɬt- affix is the ditransitive counterpart of –nt- and works in much the same. The difference between the two is that it refers to three persons: an actor , and two other actors or goals. Furthermore, -ɬt- is further differentiated from its ditransitive cousin -x(i)t- because it does not require a clitic to be a part of the verb. In contrast to this group, -st- and –x(i)t- operate by unique rules. The –st- affix, much like its counterpart must be added to a verb stem by means of suffixation, it is also transitive, and refers to an actor and a primary goal, but it implies a reference to a third person, or a secondary goal without explicitly stating it. q̓y̓əstin q'y'-əst-in. (I write it [for myself]) The -x(i)t-  ditransitive affix shares all of the features of -ɬt- with the sole exception that it requires a clitic to be attached to front of the verb stem. The reason for the clitic in Okanagan is to add emphasis or focus on the second object, whereas -ɬt- makes no distinction. Predicates and arguments. Each clause in Okanagan can be divided into two parts: inflected predicates which are required for every sentence, and optional arguments. Okanagan allows a maximum of two arguments per sentence construction. These are marked by pronominal markers on the predicate. Each argument is introduced to the sentence via  an initial determiner; the only exception to initial determiners is in the case of proper names which do not need determiners to introduce them. Predicates may be of any lexical category. There may be additional arguments added to a sentence in Okanagan via complementizers. Okanagan is unique among the majority of Salish languages for the inclusion of the complementizer. Obliques. Okanagan has one oblique marker that serves adapts it to several different functions depending upon the context in which it is used. The oblique marker ‘t' can be used to mark the object of an intransitive verb, as in the  case below. ‘t' may also mark the agent in a passive construction, and it may be used to mark the ergative agent of transitive verbs. Finally, the oblique ‘t' may be used to mark functions including time and instrument: ‘t' may also coincide with the determiner ‘iʔ' in the case of instrumentals and passive agents: Complements. There are a number of complements available to Okanagan to clarify its predicates among these are positional complements, which merely indicate the place of a predicate. In addition to positional complements, there are a variety of marked complements, complements used in Okanagan that express  further meaning through a series of particles. The first of the marked complements is the prefix /yi/. For the most part, /yi/ is an optional complement that is used in definite cases with the exception of cases when a proper noun is used. In such cases, the /yi/ prefix is not allowed. When /yi/ is used it refers to a definite referent. wikən yiʔ sqilxʷ " I saw the/those people." The sequential complements are composed of the particles /ɬ/ and /ɬa/. /ɬa/ conveys temporal sequence while /ɬ/ represents a subordinate element. way̓ x̌ast ɬ kʷ cxʷuy̓ "It's good if /that you come." way̓ x̌ast ɬa kʷ cxʷuy̓ "It will be good when/after you come." Okanagan also contains a number of locational complements which refer to when or where something happened. It is a point of reference. The /l/ and the variant /lə/particles are used to tie a predicate to a time or place. xʷuy̓ lə sənkʷəkʷəʔac. "He went in the night" Ablative complements in Okanagan come in the form of the /tl/ particle. Along with directional complements, /k̓/ and /k̓l/, Okanagan speakers can indicate motion. The ablative complement /tl/ only serves to indicate ‘moving away from.' For  instance, in the sentence below, the ablative is ‘from (across the ocean).' Kʷ scutxx tl sk̓ʷətikənx "Were you saying [that he is] from Seattle?" The directional complement's two particles represent both direction towards something, and direction towards a specific location. /k/ signifies movement towards something: k̓ incitxʷ "to my house" (not towards it) The /k̓l/ particle modifies this sentence so that it specifies the house as the location to which the subject must move. k̓əl incitxʷ "To my house" (there specifically) Classification. Verbs may react in a number of different ways when a suffix is attached to the root  stem of the word. Below are a number of ways in which intransitive roots are modified. Transitives: Space, time, modality. The Okanagan system relies heavily on its affixes to demonstrate tense, space, and time. Below are demonstrated various affixes that attach to roots to encode meaning. Of the following two examples, they are only possible in the –n transitive paradigm. ks- unrealized action ikstxt̓ám "I'm going to look after him" səc- past perfect ˁi-səc-txt'-am "I've been looking after him." The following examples are for intransitives. -k Unrealized: expresses an intentional future action or state. (I am  going to…) Kn kʷal̓t " I'm warm" -aʔx Continuative: Action or state that is in progress