Southern Tsimshian dialect

{{Short description|Tsimshian variety of British Columbia, Canada}}

{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=ru|otherarticle=Южный цимшианский язык|date=April 2024}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Southern Tsimshian

| nativename = {{lang|tsi|Sgüüx̣s}}, {{lang|tsi|Sgüümk}}

| states = Canada

| region = northwest British Columbia

| ethnicity = Tsimshian people

| extinct = 2013, with the death of Violet Neasloss

| ref = {{cite report|title=Report on the status of B.C. First Nations Languages|edition=3rd|year=2018|first1=Britt|last1= Dunlop|first2= Suzanne|last2= Gessner|first3=Tracey |last3=Herbert |first4= Aliana |last4=Parker|publisher=First People's Cultural Council|url=https://fpcc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/FPCC-LanguageReport-180716-WEB.pdf}}{{Cite web |title=Culture |url=https://spiritbear.com/culture/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=Spirit Bear Lodge |language=en}}

| familycolor = penutian

| fam1 = Tsimshianic

| fam2 = Maritime Tsimshian

| iso2 = tsi

| iso3 = tsi

| iso3comment = (with Coast Tsimshian)

| linglist = tsi-sou

| glotto = sout2962

| glottorefname = Southern Tsimshian

| revived = 4 learners (2018)

| map = File:Tsimshianic_map.svg

| mapcaption = {{legend|#78a0a7|Southern Tsimshian}}

| pronunciation = {{IPA|tsi|skiːxs|}}

}}

{{Infobox ethnonym|root=|person=|people=Ts’msyan|language=Sgüüx̣s|country=La̱xyuubm Ts’msyen{{cite journal |last1=Armstrong |first1=Chelsey Geralda |last2=Lyons |first2=Natasha |last3=McAlvay |first3=Alex C. |last4=Ritchie |first4=Patrick Morgan |last5=Lepfsky |first5=Dana |last6=Blake |first6=Michael |title=Historical ecology of forest garden management in Laxyuubm Ts'msyen and beyond |journal=Ecosystems and People |date=2023 |volume=19 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/26395916.2022.2160823 |doi-access=free }}}}

Southern Tsimshian, {{lang|tsi|Sgüüx̣s}}{{refn|group=note|name=first|Also spelled {{lang|tsi|Sgüüxs}},{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Evidentiality|date=18 January 2018|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780191077401|editor=Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald}} {{lang|tsi|SgüüXs}},{{cite book|title=The Languages of Native North America|first=Marianne|last=Mithun|author-link=Marianne Mithun|date=4 November 1999|isbn=9781107392809|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} {{lang|tsi|Sgüüxs}},{{cite book|title=The Tsimshian: Images of the Past, Views for the Present|date=1993|isbn=9780774804738|publisher=UBC Press|editor=Margaret Seguin}} or {{lang|tsi|Ski:xs}}.{{cite book|title=Cataloguing the World's Endangered Languages|date=2 February 2018|isbn=9781317413899|publisher=Taylor & Francis}}}} (pronounced: {{IPA|/skiːxs/}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ydli.org/langs/souttsim.htm|work=yldi.org|accessdate=23 September 2021|title=The South Tsimshian Language}}) or {{lang|tsi|Sgüümk}}, is the southern dialect of the Tsimshian language, spoken by the Gitga'ata and Kitasoo Tsimshians in Klemtu, B.C. It became extinct with the death of the last remaining speaker, Violet Neasloss.

{{lang|tsi|Sgüüx̣s}} is close to Coast Tsimshian and has been described{{Cite book

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| isbn = 0-521-29875-X

| last = Mithun

| first = Marianne

| title = The Languages of Native North America

| series = Cambridge Language Surveys

| pages = 525

| date = 2001

}} as a highly conservative dialect, however the two may not have been mutually intelligible with Coast Tsimshian.{{cite book|first1=Marjorie|last1=Halpin|first2=Margaret|last2=Seguin|title=Handbook of North American Indians|chapter=Tsimshian Peoples: Southern Tsimshian, Coast Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan|page=267|url=http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/anth220/a_Tsmshian_Overview.pdf|date=1990|volume=7}} The name {{lang|tsi|Sgüüx̣s}} means "the language beside."

Specialist John Asher Dunn wrote several articles on the language,{{Cite web|url= http://www.ydli.org/biblios/soubib.htm|title=South Tsimshian Bibliography|work=ydli.org|accessdate=21 January 2011}} from which the term Southern Tsimshian arose.{{cite book|title=People of the Saltwater: An Ethnography of Git Lax M'oon|first=Charles|last=Menzies|date=2016|isbn=9780803291706|publisher=University of Nebraska Press}}