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Shasta language

{{Short description|Extinct language of Shasta people in Western United States}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Shasta

| states = United States

| region = primarily northern California

| ethnicity = Shasta people

| extinct = 1990

| familycolor = hokan

| fam1 = Hokan ?

| fam2 = Shasta–Palaihnihan

| fam3 = Shastan

| iso3 = sht

| glotto = shas1239

| glottorefname = Shasta

| notice = IPA

| map = File:Shastan_languages-01.svg

| mapcaption = {{legend|#b2c09d|Shasta}}

| ref = {{Cite web | url=https://terralingua.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Terraviva-BARCELONA08oct1.pdf | title=I need Your Money...! | website=terralingua.org}}

}}

The Shasta language is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken from northern California into southwestern Oregon. It was spoken in a number of dialects, possibly including Okwanuchu. By 1980, only two first language speakers, both elderly, were alive. Today, all ethnic Shasta people speak English as their first language. According to Golla, there were four distinct dialects of Shasta:{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/767533019|title=California Indian languages|last=Golla|first=Victor|publisher=University of California Press|year=2011|isbn=9780520266674|pages=90–91|oclc=767533019}}

Phonology

=Consonants=

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2" colspan="2"|

! rowspan="2"| Bilabial

! colspan="2"| Alveolar

! rowspan="2"| Palatal

! rowspan="2"| Velar

! rowspan="2"| Glottal

plain

! affricated

rowspan="2" |Stop

!ejective

|{{IPAlink|pʼ}}    {{IPAlink|pʼː}}

|{{IPAlink|tʼ}}    {{IPAlink|tʼː}}

|{{IPAlink|tsʼ}}    {{IPAlink|t͡sʼː}}

|{{IPAlink|t͡ʃʼ}}    {{IPAlink|t͡ʃʼː}}

|{{IPAlink|kʼ}}    {{IPAlink|kʼː}}

|

unaspirated

|{{IPAlink|p}}    {{IPAlink|pː}}

|{{IPAlink|t}}    {{IPAlink|tː}}

|{{IPAlink|ts}}    {{IPAlink|t͡sː}}

|{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}}    {{IPAlink|t͡ʃː}}

|{{IPAlink|k}}    {{IPAlink|kː}}

|{{IPAlink|ʔ}}    {{IPAlink|ʔː}}

colspan="2" |Fricative

|

| colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|s}}    {{IPAlink|sː}}

|

|{{IPAlink|x}}    {{IPAlink|xː}}

|{{IPAlink|h}}    {{IPAlink|hː}}

colspan="2" |Nasal

|{{IPAlink|m}}    {{IPAlink|mː}}

| colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|n}}    {{IPAlink|nː}}

|

|

|

colspan="2" |Approximant

|

| colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|r}}

|{{IPAlink|j}}

|{{IPAlink|w}}

|

The length of a consonant distinguishes meaning in Shasta words. All stops, fricatives and nasals can occur as long or short in Shasta, but approximants /r j w/ only occur as short consonants.{{Cite thesis |last=Silver |first=Shirley |title=The Shasta Language |date=1966 |degree=Ph.D. |publisher=University of California |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6hj0n3zb |pages=37–38}} Minimal pairs and near minimal pairs are shown below:

  • /t͡ʃákàráx/ a gnat vs. /t͡sàkːírʔ/ a board
  • /ʔátʼùʔ/ nothing vs. /ʔátʼːùʔ/ wild sunflower
  • /ʔìsíkʼːàʔ/ a person vs. /ʔìsːíkʼ/ cold

=Vowels=

Shasta has four vowels, {{IPA|/i e a u/}}, with contrastive length, and two tones: high and low.

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" |Front

! colspan="2" |Central

! colspan="2" |Back

short || long

! short || long

! short || long

Close

|{{IPAlink|i}}

|{{IPAlink|iː}}

|

|

|{{IPAlink|u}}

|{{IPAlink|uː}}

Mid

|{{IPAlink|e}}

|{{IPAlink|eː}}

|

|

|

|

Open

|

|

|{{IPAlink|a}}

|{{IPAlink|aː}}

|

|

= Orthography =

Silver (1966) devised a spelling system for distinguishing consonants and vowels in Shasta. Long phonemes are represented with the symbol ⟨ˑ⟩ following the character (e.g. ⟨cˑ⟩ and ⟨eˑ⟩ for/ t͡sː/ and /eː/, respectively); ejectives are indicated by an apostrophe written over the character (e.g. ⟨p̓⟩ for /pʼ/). The phoneme {{IPA|/j/}} is represented by {{angbr|y}}, and the glottal stop /ʔ/ is represented by the superscript IPA symbol ⟨ˀ⟩. The letters ⟨b d f g j l q v z⟩ are not used to represent Shasta sounds.

style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS; font-size:1.4em; border-color:#000000; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-collapse:collapse; background-color:#F8F8EF"

|+Shasta alphabet

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |A a

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Aˑ aˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |C c

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Cˑ cˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |C̓ c̓

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |C̓ˑ c̓ˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Č č

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Čˑ čˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Č̓ č̓

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Č̓ˑ č̓ˑ

style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |E e

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Eˑ eˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |H h

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Hˑ hˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |I i

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Iˑ iˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |K k

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Kˑ kˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |K̓ k̓

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |K̓ˑ k̓ˑ

style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |M m

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Mˑ mˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |N n

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Nˑ nˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |P p

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Pˑ pˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |P̓ p̓

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |P̓ˑ p̓ˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |R r

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |S s

style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Sˑ sˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |T t

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Tˑ tˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |T̓ t̓

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |T̓ˑ t̓ˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |U u

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Uˑ uˑ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |W w

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |X x

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Xˑ xˑ

style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Y y

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |ˀ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |ˀˑ

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

== Tones ==

Shasta vowels can have low or high tones. High tones are marked by an acute accent ⟨′⟩ in the orthography devised by Silver (1966), whereas low tones are left unmarked. Examples for the vowel /u/ are given below:

class="wikitable"

!IPA

!Orthography

/ú/

|ú

/úː/

|úˑ

/ù/

|u

/ùː/

|uˑ

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • Golla, Victor (2011), California Indian languages, Berkeley: University of California Press
  • {{citation

|last=Mithun

|first=Marianne

|title=The Languages of Native North America

|place=Cambridge

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|year=1999

}}

External links

  • [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/shasta.php Shasta language] overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
  • [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\hok\sha&first=0 Shasta basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database]
  • [http://www.language-archives.org/language/sht OLAC resources in and about the Shasta language]

{{Languages of California}}

{{Hokan languages}}

Category:Shastan languages

Category:Extinct languages of North America

Category:Indigenous languages of California

Category:Indigenous languages of Oregon