Lushootseed phonology and basic phrases

[Bristel]

I got bored, and decided to write a post on anything I haven't seen discussed here.
Since I found the Lushootseed language recorded online, I've been trying to collect as many resources on it.

The name usually associated with Lushootseed today is Vi Hilbert, who was the chief of the Upper Skagit tribe until her death in 2008. She co-authored the Lushootseed Dictionary. (I really wish I could have met her).

So here's the Phonology of Lushootseed, as best as I can present it. I noticed that most texts about Lushootseed never use IPA, so I decided to decipher the linguistic gobbledygook and use an IPA transcription. (This was very hard for me, some consonants were described alveolar, when they were in fact post-alveolar)

There are a few things about the allophony of Lushootseed that I am not 100 percent sure about... as several of the vowels are described as "non-low"...

Here's the consonants, painstakingly entered for a more than a few hours... I need to learn the spacing of the codebox...

Code: Select all

       BILABIAL   |    ALVEOLAR   |   PALATAL  |    VELAR   |   UVULAR   |   GLOTTAL
                           cl-lt-pa                pl-lb       pl-lb

NASAL
plain        m             n
glottal      mˀ            nˀ
PLOSIVE
voiceless    p             t                       k kʷ        q qʷ          ʔ
voiced       b             d                       g gʷ
ejective     pʼ            tʼ                      kʼkʼʷ       qʼqʼʷ
AFFRICATE
voiceless                  t͡s t͡ɬ t͡ʃ
voiced                     d͡z    d͡ʒ
ejective                   tsʼtɬʼtʃʼ
FRICATIVE                  s  ɬ  ʃ                 x xʷ        χ χʷ          h
APPROX.
plain                         l          j           w
glottal                       lˀ         jˀ          wˀ

*cl = central, lt = lateral, pa = post-alveolar, pl = plain, lb = labialized/labial

/bˀ/ also exists, but only medially and rarely.

Vowels, which are definitely harder to pin down:

Code: Select all

i                      u

              ə
    e                  o
     æ
       a

/i e/ <i> and /u o/ <u> are allophones depending on environment
/a æ ə/ <a> are allophones depending on environment, but is /ə/ when unstressed
/ə/ <ə> is separately written when not an allophone of /a/

If you have information about phonotactics and more allophony, especially the reasons why the above allophones occur, I'd like to read more. I can probably figure out some basic phonotactics from word lists and writings. (the orthography is mostly phonetic).

So, what do you think? It's pretty complicated, and I am not sure if the /mˀ nˀ/ should be written with the same diacritic as /lˀ jˀ wˀ/ because I got conflicting descriptions of "stricture" and "laryngealized".

Basic Phrases:

ʔi k'ʷuy. [ʔe k'ʷoj] Hello, or thank you (Greeting to a woman, familiar)
ʔi siʔab. [ʔe siʔab] Hello, or thank you (Greeting to a man, familiar)
ʔi tsi siʔab. [ʔe tsi siʔab] Hello. (Formal, to a stranger)
uʔ gʷəlapu, haʔɫ syaʔyaʔ. [oʔ gʷəlapu haʔɬ sjaʔjʔ] Hello, you folks, good friends.
gʷat kʷ(i) adᶻdaʔ. [gʷat kʷad͡zdaʔ] What is your name? (i is silent, literally "who is your name")
Lois tsi dᶻdaʔ. [tsi d͡zdaʔ] My name is Lois. (used by women, not sure about transcription)
Bristel ti dᶻdaʔ. [ti d͡zdaʔ] My name is Bristel. (used by men)
tul'čad čəxʷ. [tulˀt͡ʃa t͡ʃəxʷ] Where are you from?
tul'alʔ čəd _____. [tulˀalʔ čəd] I am from _____.
xʷləšucidəd ti dsgʷədgʷadəd. [xʷləʃut͡sidəd ti d͡zgʷədgʷadəd] Lushootseed is my language.
ʔəsx̌id čəxʷ. [ʔəsχed t͡ʃəxʷ] How are you?
ʔəsƛ'ubil čəd. [ʔəstɬʼobil t͡ʃəd] I am fine. (I can't tell if it is an /i/ or an /e/ for <i> in this case, maybe in between)
ʔəsx̌əɫ čəd. [ʔəsχəɬ t͡ʃəd] I am sick/not well.
ʔəsǰuʔil čəd. [ʔəsd͡ʒoʔil t͡ʃəd] I am happy/joyful.
ʔəscəwəɫ čəd. [ʔəst͡səwiɬ t͡ʃəd] I'm hungry.
ʔəsbəɫ čəd. [ʔəsbəɬ t͡ʃəd] I am full.
ʔuʔəɫəd čəd. [ʔoʔəɬəd t͡ʃəd] I ate.
huyəxʷ čəd. [hujəxʷ t͡ʃəd] I am finished/done.
day'əxʷ haʔɫ. [dajˀəxʷ haɬ] Very good.

[Astraios]

So, what do you think?

Is awesome.

[Bristel]

So, what do you think?

Is awesome.

I'll post links to recordings of fluent speakers later, I got the example phrases from teaching videos.

If I lived back in Seattle, it would be easier to get resources and get into contact with locals who speak Lushootseed.

[Cockroach]

Salish is one of the coolest languages I know.

Write now I'm pretty tired though, so I'll look atit in thr morning

[Bristel]

Salish is one of the coolest languages I know.

Write now I'm pretty tired though, so I'll look atit in thr morning

I never had any contact with Salishan languages growing up near Seattle, besides knowing some Chinook Jargon from my grandparents, and knowing names of places... (names like Snohomish, Puyallup and Tulalip are all Lushootseed borrowings)

[Whimemsz]

Woo Salishan langs.

So here's the Phonology of Lushootseed, as best as I can present it. I noticed that most texts about Lushootseed never use IPA, so I decided to decipher the linguistic gobbledygook and use an IPA transcription. (This was very hard for me, some consonants were described alveolar, when they were in fact post-alveolar)

I don't know if you're familiar with Languagegeek, which is basically a site for native orthographies and fonts, but it's run by a linguist and includes basic phoneme inventories for the languages. There's a page for Lushootseed.

/i e/ <i> and /u o/ <u> are allophones depending on environment
/a æ ə/ <a> are allophones depending on environment, but is /ə/ when unstressed
/ə/ <ə> is separately written when not an allophone of /a/

Use slashes and brackets correctly! Shameful.

If you have information about phonotactics and more allophony, especially the reasons why the above allophones occur, I'd like to read more. I can probably figure out some basic phonotactics from word lists and writings. (the orthography is mostly phonetic).

The only thing I've been able to find online are like, papers that deal with Lushootseed in some other way, and so mention phonology in passing. Also there's this book (on Google Books) on reduplication in Lushootseed, which by necessity deals with phonological stuff (based on Optimality Theory); the discussion of the actual phoneme inventory is pretty short though, but it starts here.

Anyway, just going by the words you listed, it looks like the lower allophones of /i u/ are used when following various "laryngeal"-y type sounds: glottal stop, ejectives, uvulars. /u/ is [o] before a glottal stop as well, but the same doesn't seem to be true of /i/ and [e].

[Bristel]

Woo Salishan langs.

So here's the Phonology of Lushootseed, as best as I can present it. I noticed that most texts about Lushootseed never use IPA, so I decided to decipher the linguistic gobbledygook and use an IPA transcription. (This was very hard for me, some consonants were described alveolar, when they were in fact post-alveolar)

I don't know if you're familiar with Languagegeek, which is basically a site for native orthographies and fonts, but it's run by a linguist and includes basic phoneme inventories for the languages. There's a page for Lushootseed.

/i e/ <i> and /u o/ <u> are allophones depending on environment
/a æ ə/ <a> are allophones depending on environment, but is /ə/ when unstressed
/ə/ <ə> is separately written when not an allophone of /a/

Use slashes and brackets correctly! Shameful.

If you have information about phonotactics and more allophony, especially the reasons why the above allophones occur, I'd like to read more. I can probably figure out some basic phonotactics from word lists and writings. (the orthography is mostly phonetic).

The only thing I've been able to find online are like, papers that deal with Lushootseed in some other way, and so mention phonology in passing. Also there's this book (on Google Books) on reduplication in Lushootseed, which by necessity deals with phonological stuff (based on Optimality Theory); the discussion of the actual phoneme inventory is pretty short though, but it starts here.

Anyway, just going by the words you listed, it looks like the lower allophones of /i u/ are used when following various "laryngeal"-y type sounds: glottal stop, ejectives, uvulars. /u/ is [o] before a glottal stop as well, but the same doesn't seem to be true of /i/ and [e].

/_/ is for exact phones, and <_> is for orthography, isn't it?

I have noticed an allophonic change between /i/ and /e/ when in some words, but what conditions it, I'm still figuring out.

/i/ seems to shift to /e/ after /χ/. (sorry if my bracket and slash use is still iffy)

[Risla]

Actually, the rule is:
/phonemes/
[phones]
<orthography>

[Bristel]

I think I have messed up somewhere with phonemes here...

I probably added phones in which should be allophones instead... Many of the consonants are allophonic, as far as I can tell...

Well, the phrases are worth taking a look at least.

[Whimemsz]

I have noticed an allophonic change between /i/ and /e/ when in some words, but what conditions it, I'm still figuring out.

/i/ seems to shift to /e/ after /χ/. (sorry if my bracket and slash use is still iffy)

Yes, that's what I was saying. /i, u/ become [e, o] following a glottal stop, ejectives, or /χ/ (and presumably other uvulars?). /u/ is also [o] before a glottal stop as well. We'd need more words to get a good idea of the full allophony rules, though.

(the one exception I notice is ʔəsǰuʔil, which I would expect to be *[ʔəsǰoʔel])

[Rodlox]

I think I have messed up somewhere with phonemes here...

thank you for going to the trouble of inputting as much information as you did.

Well, the phrases are worth taking a look at least.

very much.

[roninbodhisattva]

I love Salishan languages, the family is one of my favorites on the planet. I've actually done a lot of working during my undergraduate career on Salish, so this is a great thread! Thanks for it!

There's something I'd like to correct though: Lushootseed does not have nasals, as they were historically replaced by the voiced stops found in the language. The other voiced stops come from glides, apparently. So the sound change is:

*/m n/ > /b d/
*/j/ > /dʒ/
*/w/ > /g/, /g^w/

This is not a conditioned sound change. Though I think the glides are still phonemes, so maybe that part is. I'm not really sure of the details of it, actually. I've heard passing mention that there are nasals used for stylized speech. So yeah. It's a nasalless inventory! Isn't that sweet?

[Bristel]

Thanks for that... I think some of the old materials have nasals in the inventory, but for what reason, I'm not sure.

I really wish that I could have met Vi Hilbert... she would have been a great person to interview.