Thompson (endonym: ) – also known as Nlakaʼpamuctsin, Nlakaʼpamux, or Nthlakampx – is an Interior Salishan language spoken by the Nlakaʼpamux people (also known as the Thompson people). It is spoken in the Fraser Canyon, Thompson Canyon, and Nicola Country of the Canadian province of British Columbia and was formerly spoken in the North Cascades region of Whatcom and Chelan counties of Washington State in the United States. A dialect distinctive to the Nicola Valley is called Scwʼexmx, which is the name of the subgroup of the Nlakaʼpamux who live there.
Phonology Thompson is a consonant-heavy language. The consonants can be divided into two subgroups: obstruents (oral occlusives & voiceless continuants), which restrict airflow, and sonorants (nasal occlusives & voiced and glottalic continuants), which do not. The sonorants are often syllabic consonants, which can form syllables on their own without vowels.
Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular/Pharyngeal Glottal plain sib. lat. plain lab. plain lab.Occlusivenasal plain glottalic oral tenuis ejective Continuant voiceless voiced glottalic
Vowels FrontCentralBacknor. ret.nor. ret.Close ~ Mid ~ Open
Stress is transcribed with an acute accent, such as .
Writing systems +nɬeʔképmxcin consonant chartp̓(t̓)ƛ̓c̓c̓k̓k̓ʷq̓q̓ʷʔptɬc̣ckkʷqqʷʔɬṣsxxʷx̣x̣ʷhmnlzyɣwʕʕʷm̓n̓l̓z̓y̓ɣ̓w̓ʕ̓ʕ̓ʷ One of the writing systems used for Thompson uses the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA) writing system.
The above consonant chart is based on the one found in "The Thompson Language" by Laurence C. Thompson & M. Terry Thompson.
Morphology and syntax
Researchers working in the Generative tradition have speculated that Salishan languages lack lexical categories such as nouns and verbs. Evidence for such an absence of contrast between parts of speech in Thompson come from a lack of clear morphological markers (e.g., morphemes) that differentiate nouns and verbs. Instead, generative linguists discuss morphology and syntax in Salishan based on a framework of predicates and particles. However, more contemporary work suggests a changing understanding of Salishan grammar. Some Salishanists believe that functional categories are not prescriptive of lexical categories. Work in Functional linguistics suggests that other factors beyond morphological evidence code lexical categories in languages. In Salishan, the distinction would be less overt than in some other languages.
Lexical suffixes
One morphological feature of Thompson is lexical suffixes. These are words that add nuance to predicates and can be affixed to the ends of root words to add their general meaning to that word. Thompson and Thompson assert that as a result of English language influence, speakers are using these more complex predicates less and less in favor of simpler predicates with complements and adjuncts, resulting in “a general decline in the exploitation of the rich synthetic resources of the language.”
SuffixSuffix meaningRootRoot meaningSuffixed form ꞊uyəm’xwearth, land, place; in vicinity; (earth) oven; baked goods/q’íx̣-tstrong, secure/q’íx̣꞊ym’xw firm, hard ground√c’əɬcold/c’ɬ꞊úym’xwit is a cold countrykw[ʔá]l’turn green/kwa[ʔ]l’꞊úym’xw the grass turns green√c’ápfermentn/c’áp꞊ym’xwsour-dough, yeast bread꞊eksthand, arm√kiyèʔahead, in front, principal, the eldests/kiyèʔ꞊qínʼ꞊kstthumb꞊qinhead꞊xnfoot, legs/kiyèʔ꞊qínʼ꞊xnbig toe√kʼəmfocal arean/kʼm꞊énk꞊xnsole of foot꞊ene(ʔ)kbelly, under side
See also Chief Nicola
References
Sources