Okanagan language

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Okanagan

Colville

n̓ səl ̓xcin̓ , Nsyilxcən

Native to Canada, United States

Region Southern Interior of British Columbia, Central-northern State of Washington

Ethnicity Okanagan, Colville, Lakes, Methow

Native speakers 600 (2007–2014)[1]

2,000 L2 speakers (2007)

figure for US perhaps exaggerated

Language family

Salishan

Interior Salish

Southern

Okanagan

Dialects

Northern Okanagan

Colville (n̓ xʷ̌ ʔiłpcən)

Lakes (Sinixt)

San-poil (Nespelem)

Southern Okanagan

Methow

Language codes

ISO 639-3 oka

Glottolog okan1243

ELP Nsyilxcən
Okanagan, or Colville-Okanagan, or Nsyilxcən, 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 repression of all Salishan languages, the
use of Colville-Okanagan declined drastically.

Colville-Okanagan is highly endangered and is rarely learned as either a first or second language. About
150 deeply fluent speakers of Colville-Okanagan Salish remain, the majority of whom live in 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.

Contents

1 History and description

2 Revitalization

2.1 Revitalization in the United States

2.2 Revitalization in Canada

3 Orthography

4 Phonology

4.1 Consonants

4.2 Vowels

5 Morphology

5.1 Person markers

5.2 Absolutive case

5.3 Possessive case

5.4 Ergative case

5.5 Accusative case

6 Predicates and arguments

6.1 Obliques

6.2 Complements

7 Classification
8 Space, time, modality

8.1 Directional prefixes

8.2 Prepositional case-markings for oblique objects

9 See also

10 References

11 Bibliography

11.1 Language learning texts

11.2 Narratives, songbooks, dictionaries, and word lists

11.3 Linguistic descriptions and reviews

12 External links

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 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 n̓ səl ̓xcin̓ or nsyilxcn. Speakers of n̓ səl ̓xcin̓ 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. In Colville-Okanagan, all nsyilxcn-
speaking bands are grouped under the ethnic label syilx. 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.

Revitalization
In 2012, the CBC featured a report on a family which is teaching its children n̓ səl ̓xcin̓ in the home.[3]

Five nonprofit organizations which support Colville-Okanagan language acquisition and revitalization are
the Paul Creek Language Association in Keremeos, British Columbia, the En'owkin Centre in Penticton,
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 are limited largely to instruction for
children. 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 150 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.[4]

Despite the confederation's efforts, language revitalization cannot be reproduced on such a large scale
in the short run. The Salish School of Spokane in Washington takes a smaller approach towards
revitalization. This school caters to the Colville-Okanagan-speaking population in the tribal regions of
northeastern Washington. This school's efforts fall under the category of full-immersion school. The
Salish School's target demographic is children between the ages of one and 10 years old. This places the
Salish School of Spokane in the children revitalization group of schools. The school's programs are
designed to spur full native fluency in Okanagan before the age of 10. The school does this by offering
classes in Okanagan from 9 am to 3:15 pm. According to school expectations and curricula, children are
expected to speak Okanagan for the duration of their time in school. In addition, the school is
committed to an active learning strategy, that is, children are taught common nursery rhythms (heads,
shoulders, knees, and toes) that engage the learner's body.[5]

The 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, the Salish School maintains a
variety of audio resources and curricula to advance 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 N̓ səl ̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project.[6] The N̓ səl ̓xcin̓ 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.[6] 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.[6] Most importantly, the curriculum developed by the N̓ səl ̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project is
available in electronic format online free of charge.[7]

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.[8] Additionally, the center 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.[8] 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 native 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.[9]

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.[10] 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.[10] 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 Nsyilxcen speakers in the 2020 cohort.[10]