SAHAPTIN (ICHISHKIIN)

SAHAPTIN (ICHISHKIIN)

Sahaptin, which has 39 letters in its alphabet, is among several Native American languages described as “polysynthetic.” That means that sentences are composed of long, highly structured words with many parts (known as morphemes to linguists.)

Other ways in determining pronunciation are the hard and soft sounds within the Yakama dialect. Examples would be an apostrophe after the letter(s) ch’ or k’. This brings out a hard pronunciation.

This also applies to vowels with an apostrophe above them. Vowels may have either short or long sounds. As a rule, the second vowel in a word takes on a longer pronunciation.

A stress mark is placed above the most prominent or strongest vowel or word, many times changing the meaning, sometimes slightly, sometimes drastically, examples: Pák’inushana means “He saw him,” and Pak’ínushana means “They saw him.” Ákak means “Canadian goose,” and akák means “your maternal uncle.”

To hear and see people speaking Sahaptin, go to www.youtube.com and type “xwayamami ishich” or “ichishkin.” You’ll find about three dozen videos created by Greg Sutterlict at Heritage University and others showing them speaking the language in various situations.

Here are just a few examples of words in Sahaptin.

ant: skilwisá or kliwisá or tamshúy

antelope: chatwíll or wáwataw

bait: yatsímakt

ball: shp’áw or k’píit

bandana: chátl’umxsh

clothes: táatpas

cloud: shwát’ash or páshcht

coast: wanúkshi

— Source: www.native-languages.org/sahaptin.htm