Also Known As: Tzilkotin
Description:
Chilcotin (also Tsilhqot’in, Tzilkotin) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqot’in people.
The name Chilcotin is derived from the Chilcotin name for themselves: Tŝilhqot’in (IPA: [ts̱ˤʰᵊĩɬqʰotʼin]), literally "people of the red ochre river".
Chilcotin has 47 consonants:
Chilcotin has 6 vowels:
Every given Chilcotin vowel will have a number of different phonetic realizations due to complex phonological processes (e.g. nasalization, laxing, flattening). For instance, the vowel /i/ can be variously pronounced [i, ĩ, ɪ, e, ᵊi, ᵊĩ, ᵊɪ].
Chilcotin is a tonal language with two tones:
Chilcotin has a number of interesting phonological processes, namely vowel flattening and consonant harmony. Consonant harmony (i.e. sibilant harmony) is rather common in the Athabaskan language family. Vowel flattening, though unique to Chilcotin, is similar to phonological processes in other unrelated Interior Salishan languages spoken in the same area, such as Shuswap, St'át'imcets, and Thompson River Salish (and thus was probably borrowed into Chilcotin). This type of harmony is an areal feature common in this region of North America. The Chilcotin processes, however,..... full article at Wikipedia |