Okanagan , or Colville-Okanagan , or Nsyilxcən ( n̓səl̓xcin̓ , n̓syilxčn̓ ), 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 assimilation of all Salishan tribes, the use of Colville-Okanagan declined drastically.
38-597: The Penticton Indian Band ( Okanagan : Sn̓pin̓tktn̓ ) is a First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia , located next to the city of Penticton in the Okanagan Valley. They are a member of the Okanagan Nation Alliance . It has an accredited High School and Elementary school. Indian Reserves under the administration of the band are: This British Columbia -related article
76-670: A First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the Canada–US boundary in Washington state and unceded British Columbia in the Okanagan Country region. They are part of the Interior Salish ethnological and linguistic grouping. The Okanagan are closely related to the Spokan , Sinixt , Nez Perce , Pend Oreille , Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamux peoples of
114-646: A border-spanning organization which includes American-side Syilx residents in the Colville Indian Reservation , where the Syilx are sometimes known as Colvilles. The Upper Nicola Indian Band , a Syilx group of the Nicola Valley , which was at the northwestern perimeter of Okanagan territory, are known in their dialect as the Spaxomin , and are joint members in a historic alliance with neighbouring communities of
152-487: A comprehensive community language revitalization strategy for Colville-Okanagan Salish. This school serves Colville-Okanagan people in the Spokane Metro Area. Salish School of Spokane serves both children and adults. SSOS currently (2021-22 school year) serves children aged 1 year old up to 9th grade with Salish immersion education. P-6 classrooms are 100% n̓səl̓xčin̓ immersion classes in which the language of instruction
190-533: A crucial time as the nsyilxcn language is critically endangered. The Paul Creek Language Association uses this alphabet: The letters with acute accent á , ə́ , í , and ú are not counted as separate letters in this alphabet. The Westbank First Nation uses this alphabet, in which the letters with acute accent are counted as separate letters: Consonant inventory of Colville-Okanagan: The vowels found in Lakes are: [i], [a], [u], [ə], and [o]. Stress will fall only on
228-576: A nonprofit based in British Columbia, on the N̓səl̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project. The N̓səl̓xcin̓ 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
266-619: A regular attendance of 30 or more people. Though the Confederation's efforts are laudable, the limitations of 50 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. Despite the confederation's efforts, language revitalization cannot be reproduced on such a large scale in the short run. Salish School of Spokane (SSOS)(sƛ̓x̌atkʷ nsəl̓xčin̓ sn̓maʔmáyaʔtn̓) in Washington State has
304-528: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to the Indigenous peoples of North America is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Okanagan language Colville-Okanagan is highly endangered, is rarely learned as a first but is being learned as a second language by more than 40 adults and 35 children in the City of Spokane, Washington, and by several dozen adults on
342-485: Is encoded into the meaning of the word via the inclusion of the gender suffix at the end of the sentence. Person markers within Colville-Okanagan are attached to verbs, nouns, or adjectives. The marker used depending on transitivity of verbs and other conditions outlined below. The person maker used largely depends on the case being used in the sentence. Absolutive markers within Colville-Okanagan can only be used if
380-566: Is n̓səl̓xčin and math, literacy, science, art, music and physical education are taught in n̓səl̓xčin. The school's programs are designed to spur full fluency in Colville-Okanagan by the age of 15. According to school expectations and curricula, children are expected to speak Colville-Okanagan for the duration of their time in school. In addition to programming for children, in July 2022, SSOS is also providing intensive n̓səl̓xčin training to more than 40 adults. Twenty-eight staff members at SSOS are enrolled in
418-418: Is primarily confined to minor differences in 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
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#1733085441498456-694: Is q̓ʷc̓iʔ. When the Oregon Treaty partitioned the Pacific Northwest in 1846, the portion of the tribe remaining in what became Washington Territory reorganized under Chief Tonasket as a separate group from the majority of the Syilx, whose communities remain in Canada. The Okanagan Tribal Alliance, however, incorporates the American branch of the Syilx. The latter are part of the Confederated Tribes of
494-598: The Nlaka'pamux in the region known as the Nicola Country , which is named after the 19th-century chief who founded the alliance, Nicola . This alliance today is manifested in the Nicola Tribal Association . The language of the Syilx people is Nsyilxcn. "Syilx" is at the root of the language name Nsyilxcn, surrounded by a circumfix indicating a language. When writing Nsyilxcn, no capital letters are used. Nsyilxcn
532-786: The Colville , a multi-tribal government in Washington state. The bounds of Syilx territory are roughly the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Okanagan River , plus the basin of the Similkameen River to the west of the Okanagan valley , and some of the uppermost valley of the Nicola River . The various Syilx communities in British Columbia and Washington form the Okanagan Nation Alliance ,
570-587: The Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State and among Okanagan people in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. About 50 deeply fluent first-language speakers of Colville-Okanagan Salish remain, the majority of whom live in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. The language is currently moribund and has no first-language speakers younger than 50 years of age. Colville-Okanagan is
608-480: The En’owkin Centre. It is designed to work closely with the community to provide comprehensive and high-quality education and to promote new, fluent speakers with a deep understanding of the language, culture, and customs. UBCO is the first university in Canada and one of the first in the world to offer a degree program in an Indigenous language. This degree program will boost the number of fluent nsyilxcn speakers at
646-741: The Methow River in the west, to Kootenay Lake in the east, and north along the Columbia River and the Arrow Lakes, as well as the Slocan Valley . In Colville-Okanagan, all nsyilxcn -speaking bands are grouped under the ethnic label syil̓x . Syil̓x means "Salish" and is a cognate of the Spokane-Kalispel word, séliš, the enthnonym of the Bitterroot Salish people of Montana. Colville-Okanagan is
684-686: The Okanagan language. The project is composed of six textbooks divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. 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. Most importantly,
722-1072: The Paul Creek Language Association in Keremeos , British Columbia, the syilx Language House in Oliver, 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 efforts for Colville-Okanagan in
760-516: The Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program at SSOS. These staff members receive 90 minutes of immersion n̓səl̓xčin training daily as part of their work. Another 16 adults, parents of SSOS students, participate in paid afternoon and evening n̓səlxčin̓ fluency track training. All SSOS parents commit to completing at least 60 hours of n̓səl̓xčin̓ language classes per year in order for their children to be eligible to attend
798-751: The United States include instruction for children and intensive programs for training new adult speakers. 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
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#1733085441498836-583: 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 Indigenous 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
874-579: The certificate is offered in partnership with the University of Victoria . Additionally, the Centre 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. The strategy behind these two certificates ensures that potential teachers have easy access to college credits from centers of higher learning like
912-416: The curriculum developed by the N̓səl̓xcin̓ Curriculum Project is available in electronic format online free of charge. 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
950-515: The full vowels [i], [a], and [u] in Colville-Okanagan. The morphology of Colville-Okanagan is fairly complex. It is a head-marking language that relies mostly on grammatical information being placed directly on the predicate by means of affixes and clitics. The combination of derivational and inflectional suffixes and prefixes that are added onto the stem words make for a compact language. Colville-Okanagan demonstrates great flexibility when dealing with persons, number, and gender. The language encodes
988-941: 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 . According to nsyilxcən language keepers, words in
1026-457: The high school dropout rate for aboriginal high schoolers is very high. 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. 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. Following completion of
1064-576: 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 n̓səl̓xčin̓ or nsyilxcn . Speakers of n̓səl̓xčin̓ occupied the northern portion of the Columbia Basin from
1102-512: The nsyilxcən language should not be capitalized. As described in an Indiginews article, "In an egalitarian society, capitalization insinuates there is something that holds more importance over another, and that does not fall in line with syilx ethics". In 2012, the CBC featured a report on a family which is teaching its children n̓səl̓xcin̓ at home. Six nonprofit organizations which support Colville-Okanagan language acquisition and revitalization are
1140-470: The person via a series of prefixes and suffixes, and uses its number system in tandem with pluralized pronominals to communicate the number of actors within a sentence. For example: k- num. CL kaˀ- PL . REDUP kaˀɬis three k- kaˀ- kaˀɬis num.CL PL.REDUP three "There are three people" In this example the /k/ classification designates that the word contains a numeral classifier. Additionally, Colville-Okanagan relies heavily on
1178-463: The predicate of the sentence is intransitive. For example, [Kən c'k-am] (I count) is perfectly viable in Colville-Okanagan, but *[Kən c'k-ən-t] *(I count it)is not because the verb 'count' is transitive. Person markers never occur without an accompanying intransitive verb. Simple possessives within Colville-Okanagan are predominantly a result of prefixation and circumfixation on a verb. However, Colville-Okanagan uses simple possessives as aspect forms on
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1216-623: 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 nsyilxcn speakers in the 2020 cohort. Moreover, created in 2021 the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) offers the Bachelor of nsyilxcn Language Fluency (BNLF) program, that was created in collaboration with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) and
1254-430: The same Northwest Plateau region . At the height of Okanagan Syilx culture, about 3000 years ago, it is estimated that 12,000 people lived in this valley and surrounding areas. The Syilx employed an adaptive strategy, moving within traditional areas throughout the year to fish, hunt, or collect food, while in the winter months, they lived in semi-permanent villages of kekulis , a type of pithouse. In Nsyilxcn pit house
1292-402: The school. SSOS offers free, beginning n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan) language classes on evenings and weekends for SSOS parents and other community members. At Salish School of Spokane, there are 35 intergenerational pairs- 35 immersion school students who have at least one parent who is studying n̓səl̓xčin in a fluency-track program. Salish School of Spokane makes a point of not falling into
1330-532: The second-most spoken Salish language after Shuswap . 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
1368-422: The trap of monopolizing teaching resources. Unlike Walsh's examples of tribes opting to not share materials, Salish School maintains a variety of audio resources and curricula to advance Colville-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,
1406-400: The use of suffixes to designate gender. Okanagan handles gender in much the same way, by attaching both determiner and ‘man' to the sentence, the gender of an object or subject can be communicated: an-kɬ 2sgposs-to tkɬmílxʷ be-woman an-kɬ tkɬmílxʷ 2sgposs-to be-woman "She is your wife to be" In this example, there is a combination of 2nd singular marker with ‘wife.' ‘She'
1444-497: The verb in very complex ways. This practice is predominantly seen in Southern interior Salish languages. Where prefixation occurs with -in / an in the 1st and 2nd person singular, /n/ may undergo deletion as below: in- 1sg . POSS - s- nom- xʷuy go -tan Okanagan people The Syilx ( Salishan pronunciation: [sjilx] ) people, also known as the Okanagan , Suknaqinx , or Okinagan people, are
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