Nlaka'pamuxtsin
| Thompson | |
|---|---|
| Nłeʔkepmxcín | |
| Native to | Canada, United States |
| Region | British Columbia, Washington |
| Ethnicity | 6,140 Nlaka'pamux (2014, FPCC) |
|
Native speakers
|
130 (2014, FPCC) |
|
Salishan
|
|
| Duployan shorthand (historical) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | thom1243 |
The Thompson language, properly known as Nlaka'pamuctsin also known as the Nlaka'pamux ('Nthlakampx') language, is an Interior Salishan language spoken in the Fraser Canyon, Thompson Canyon, Nicola Country of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and also (historically) in the North Cascades region of Whatcom and Chelan counties of the state of Washington in the United States. A dialect distinct to the Nicola Valley is called Scw'exmx, which is the name of the subgroup of the Nlaka'pamux who live there.
Nlaka'pamuctsin is a consonant-heavy language. The consonants can be divided into two subgroups: obstruents, which restrict airflow, and sonorants or resonants, which do not. The sonorants are often syllabic consonants, which can form syllables on their own without vowels.
Stress is used with an acute accent; á.
Conventional wisdom about Salishan languages has long maintained an absence of lexical categories in that family. Many researchers believe there is a lack of contrast between parts of speech like nouns and verbs in Nlaka'pamuctsin, based on a lack of clear morphological differences. Instead, linguists discuss morphology and syntax in Salishan based on a framework of predicates and particles. However, recent work suggests a changing understanding of Salishan grammar. Now, most Salishanists believe that functional categories are not prescriptive of lexical categories, and that morphological evidence does not prove that the latter categories do not exist, only that the distinction is more subtle in some languages than in others.
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