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Nsyilxcən (n̓səl̓xcin̓ or n̓syilxčn̓) 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, is rarely learned as a first language, but is being learned as a second language by more than 40 adults and 35 children in the City of Spokane, Washington, and by several dozen adults on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State and among Okanagan people in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. About 50 deeply fluent first-language speakers of Colville-Okanagan Salish remain, the majority of whom live in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.[2] 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 minor differences in 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 n̓səl̓xčin̓ or nsyilxcn. Speakers of n̓səl̓xčin̓ 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, as well as the Slocan Valley. In Colville-Okanagan, all nsyilxcn-speaking bands are grouped under the ethnic label syil̓x. syil̓x means "Salish" and is a cognate of the Spokane-Kalispel word, séliš, the enthnonym of the Bitterroot Salish people of Montana. 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. According to nsyilxcən language keepers, words in the nsyilxcən language should not be capitalized. As described in an Indiginews article, "In an egalitarian society, capitalization insinuates there is something that holds more importance over another, and that does not fall in line with syilx ethics".[3] Revitalization In 2012, the CBC featured a report on a family which is teaching its children n̓səl̓xcin̓ at home.[4] Seven nonprofit organizations which support Colville-Okanagan language acquisition and revitalization are the Paul Creek Language Association in Keremeos,[5] British Columbia, the syilx Language House[6] in Penticton, British Columbia, the En'owkin Centre[7] in Penticton, the Osoyoos Indian Band Language House[8] in Oliver, 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 include instruction for children and intensive programs for training new adult speakers. 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 50 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.[9] Despite the confederation's efforts, language revitalization cannot be reproduced on such a large scale in the short run. Salish School of Spokane (SSOS)(sƛ̓x̌atkʷ nsəl̓xčin̓ sn̓maʔmáyaʔtn̓) in Washington State has a comprehensive community language revitalization strategy for Colville-Okanagan Salish. This school serves Colville-Okanagan people in the Spokane Metro Area. Salish School of Spokane serves both children and adults. SSOS currently (2021-22 school year) serves children aged 1 year old up to 9th grade with Salish immersion education. P-6 classrooms are 100% n̓səl̓xčin̓ immersion classes in which the language of instruction is n̓səl̓xčin and math, literacy, science, art, music and physical education are taught in n̓səl̓xčin. The school's programs are designed to spur full fluency in Colville-Okanagan by the age of 15. According to school expectations and curricula, children are expected to speak Colville-Okanagan for the duration of their time in school. In addition to programming for children, in July 2022, SSOS is also providing intensive n̓səl̓xčin training to more than 40 adults. Twenty-eight staff members at SSOS are enrolled in the Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program at SSOS. These staff members receive 90 minutes of immersion n̓səl̓xčin training daily as part of their work. Another 16 adults, parents of SSOS students, participate in paid afternoon and evening n̓səlxčin̓ fluency track training. All SSOS parents commit to completing at least 60 hours of n̓səl̓xčin̓ language classes per year in order for their children to be eligible to attend the school. SSOS offers free, beginning n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan) language classes on evenings and weekends for SSOS parents and other community members. At Salish School of Spokane, there are 35 intergenerational pairs- 35 immersion school students who have at least one parent who is studying n̓səl̓xčin in a fluency-track program.[10][11] 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, Salish School maintains a variety of audio resources and curricula to advance Colville-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.[12] 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.[12] 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.[12] Most importantly, the curriculum developed by the N̓səl̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project is available in electronic format online free of charge.[13] 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.[14] Additionally, the Centre 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.[14] 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 Indigenous 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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[16] 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 nsyilxcn speakers in the 2020 cohort.[16] Moreover, created in 2021 the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) offers the Bachelor of nsyilxcn Language Fluency (BNLF) program, that was created in collaboration with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) and the En’owkin Centre. It is designed to work closely with the community to provide comprehensive and high-quality education and to promote new, fluent speakers with a deep understanding of the language, culture, and customs. UBCO is the first university in Canada and one of the first in the world to offer a degree program in an Indigenous language. This degree program will boost the number of fluent nsyilxcn speakers at a crucial time as the nsyilxcn language is critically endangered. Orthography Okanagan alphabets are unicase, with no capital letters. The Paul Creek Language Association uses this alphabet: Letter Letter Name IPA English Explanation Nsyilxcn Example a a /a/ as in the word father anwí (it is you) c ci /t͡ʃ/ as in the word church cʕas (crash) c̓ c̓a /t͡sʼ/ as in the word cats c̓ałt (cold) ə ə /ə/ as in the word elephant əcxʷuy (goes) h ha /h/ as in the word happy hiw̓t (rat) i is /i/ as in the word see ixíʔ (that/then) k kut /k/ as in the word kite kilx (hand) k̓ k̓it /kʼ/ is pronounced as a hard k k̓ast (bad) kʷ kʷup /kʷ/ as in the word queen kʷint (take) k̓ʷ k̓ʷap /kʷʼ/ is pronounced as a hard kʷ k̓ʷck̓ʷact (strong) l li /l/ as in the word love limt (happy) l̓ əl̓ /lˀ/ pronounced as an abruptly stopped l sl̓ax̌t (friend) ł łu /ɬ/ pronounced as a slurpy l łt̓ap (bounce/jump) ƛ̓ ƛ̓i /t͡ɬʼ/ pronounced as a click tl out of the side of the mouth ƛ̓lap (stop) m mi /m/ as in the word mom mahúyaʔ (raccoon) m̓ əm̓ /mˀ/ pronounced as an abruptly ended m stim̓ (what) n nu /n/ as in the word no naqs (one) n̓ ən̓ /nˀ/ pronounce as an abruptly stopped n n̓in̓wiʔs (later) p pi /p/ as in the word pop pn̓kin̓ (when) p̓ p̓a /pʼ/ pronounced as a popped p p̓um (brown) q qi /q/ pronounced as a k deep in the back of the throat qáqnaʔ (grandma) q̓ q̓u /qʼ/ pronounced as a hard q q̓aʔxán (shoe) qʷ qʷa /qʷ/ pronounced as a q with rounded lips qʷacqn (hat) q̓ʷ q̓ʷʕay /qʷʼ/ pronounced as a hard q with rounded lips q̓ʷmqin (antler) r ri /r/ pronounced rolled on the tongue yirncút (make itself round) s sas /s/ as in the word sister síyaʔ (saskatoon/sarvis/June berry) t ti /t/ as in the word top tum̓ (mother) t̓ t̓a /tʼ/ pronounced as a hard t t̓ínaʔ (ear) u u /u/ as in the word soon uł (and) w wa /w/ as in the word walk wikn (I saw it) w̓ əw̓s /wˀ/ pronounced as an abruptly ended w sw̓aw̓ásaʔ (auntie) x xu /x/ pronounced as a soft h in the back of the throat xixəw̓tm (girl) x̌ x̌a /χ/ pronounced as a guttural h deep in the back of the throat x̌ast (good) xʷ xʷi /xʷ/ pronounced as an h in the back of the throat but with rounded lips xʷuy (go) x̌ʷ x̌ʷay /χʷ/ pronounced as a guttural h in the back of the throat but with rounded lips x̌ʷus (foam) y yi /j/ as in the word yellow yus (dark/purple) y̓ y̓u /jˀ/ pronounced as an abruptly ended y c̓sy̓aqn (head) ʔ ʔət /ʔ/ is a breath stop in the back of the throat as in the word uh-oh ʔaʔúsaʔ (egg) ʕ ʕay /ʕ/ pronounced as a short a deep in the back of the throat ʕaymt (angry) ʕ̓ ʕ̓aw /ʕˀ/ pronounced as an abruptly ended ʕ ʕ̓ac̓nt (look) ʕʷ (?) /ʕʷ/ pronounced as a nasally ow in the back of the throat kaʕʷm (pray) 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: Westbank First Nation alphabet[17] a á c cʼ ə ə́ ɣ ɣʼ h ḥ i í k kʼ kʷ kʼʷ l lʼ ɬ ƛʼ m mʼ n nʼ p t qʼʷ qʼ qʷ q r rʼ s pʼ tʼ u ú w wʼ x xʷ x̌ x̌ʷ y yʼ ʔ ʕ ʕʼ ʕʷ ʕʼʷ Phonology Consonants Consonant inventory of Colville-Okanagan:[18] Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal central affricate lateral plain labial plain labial plain labial Stop plain p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ ts ~ tʃ ⟨c/č⟩ k ⟨k⟩ kʷ ⟨kʷ⟩ q ⟨q⟩ qʷ ⟨qʷ⟩ ʔ ⟨ʔ⟩ ejec. pʼ ⟨p̓⟩ tʼ ⟨t̓⟩ tsʼ ⟨c̓⟩ tɬʼ ⟨ƛ̓⟩ kʼ ⟨k̓⟩ kʷʼ ⟨k̓ʷ⟩ qʼ ⟨q̓⟩ qʷʼ ⟨q̓ʷ⟩ Fricative s ~ ʃ ⟨s/š⟩ ɬ ⟨ɬ/ł⟩ x ⟨x⟩ xʷ ⟨xʷ⟩ χ ⟨x̌/x̣⟩ χʷ ⟨x̌ʷ/x̣ʷ⟩ h ⟨h⟩ Sonorant plain m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ l ⟨l⟩ j ⟨y⟩ ɣ ⟨ɣ⟩ [a] w ⟨w⟩ ʕ ⟨ʕ⟩ [b] ʕʷ ⟨ʕʷ⟩ glottal. mˀ ⟨m̓⟩ nˀ ⟨n̓⟩ lˀ ⟨l̓⟩ jˀ ⟨y̓⟩ wˀ ⟨w̓⟩ ʕˀ ⟨ʕ̓⟩ ʕˀʷ ⟨ʕ̓ʷ⟩ Trill plain r ⟨r⟩ glottal. rˀ ⟨r̓⟩ Only occurs in some dialects.[19] Sometimes realized as a uvular flap in the Southern Okanagan dialect.[20] 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 Colville-Okanagan. Front Central Back Close i ⟨i⟩ u ⟨u⟩ Mid ə ⟨ə⟩ [a] o ⟨o⟩ [b] Open a ⟨a⟩ The [ə] is the single unstressed variant of the full vowels in Okanagan The [o] vowel is found only in borrowed words Morphology The morphology of Colville-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.[21] Person markers Colville-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: tkaˀkaˀɬis k- num.CL kaˀ- PL.REDUP kaˀɬis three "There are three people"[21] In this example the /k/ classification designates that the word contains a numeral classifier. Additionally, Colville-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: akɬtkɬmílxʷ an-kɬ 2sgposs-to tkɬmílxʷ be-woman "She is your wife to be"[21] 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 Colville-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 Colville-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 Colville-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.[21] Singular Plural 1st person kən kʷu 2nd person kʷ p 3rd person null (...-əlx) Possessive case Simple possessives within Colville-Okanagan are predominantly a result of prefixation and circumfixation on a verb. However, Colville-Okanagan uses simple possessives as aspect forms on the verb in very complex ways. This practice is predominantly seen in Southern interior Salish languages.[21] The stem: kilx 'hand' Possessive Example Use Morphological process Translation 1st SG inkilx in-kilx prefix my-hand 2nd SG ankilx an-kilx prefix your-hand 3rd SG iʔ kilxs iʔ⟩kilx⟨s circumfix his/her⟩hand⟨ 1st PL iʔ kilxtət iʔ⟩kilx⟨tət circumfix Our⟩hand⟨ 2nd PL iʔ kilxəmp iʔ⟩kilx⟨əmp circumfix Your.PL⟩hand⟨ 3rd PL iʔ kilxsəlx iʔ⟩kilx⟨səlx circumfix Their⟩hand⟨