Moses-Columbia, or Columbia-Wenatchi (in Moses-Columbia: Nxaʔamxcín), was a Southern Interior Salish language, also known as Nxaảmxcín. Speakers resided in the Colville Indian Reservation. The Columbia people were followers of Chief Moses.
Moses-Columbia | |
---|---|
Columbia-Wenatchi | |
Nxaʔamxcín | |
Native to | United States of America |
Region | northern Idaho, eastern Washington |
Ethnicity | 230 (2000 census)[1] |
Extinct | April 2023[1] |
Salishan
| |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | col |
Glottolog | colu1241 |
ELP | Columbian |
Columbian is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |
There were two dialects, Columbia (Sinkiuse, Columbian) and Wenatchi (Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan). Wenatchi was the heritage language of the Wenatchi, Chelan, and Entiat tribes, Columbian of the Sinkiuse-Columbia.
Pauline Stensgar, who died in April 2023 at age 96, is reported to have been the last fully fluent speaker.[2]
Phonology of the Columbia-Wenatchi dialect:
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central | sibilant | lateral | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p | t | ts | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | ||||
glottalized | pʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | kʼ | kʷ’ | qʼ | qʷ’ | |||||
Fricative | s | ɬ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | ħ | ħʷ | h | ||||
Sonorant | plain | m | n | l | j | w | ʕ | ʕʷ | |||||
glottalized | mˀ | nˀ | lˀ | jˀ | wˀ | ʕˀ | ʕʷˀ | ||||||
Trill | plain | r | |||||||||||
glottalized | rˀ |
The three vowels in Moses-Columbia are /i/, /a/, /u/. They are sometimes transcribed as [e]; /i/, [o]; /u/, and [æ]; /a/, and could also tend to sound unstressed, almost as a schwa sound, /ə/.