Umatilla is a variety of Southern Sahaptin

Sahaptin language

Sahaptin , Sħáptənəxw, is a Plateau Penutian language of the Sahaptian branch spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho....

, part of the Sahaptian

Sahaptian languages

Sahaptian is a sub-grouping of two languages of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.-Family division:Sahaptian includes 2 languages*Kittitas *Klickitat*Nez Percé**Nez Percé...

 subfamily of the Plateau Penutian group. It was spoken during late aboriginal times along the Columbia River and is therefore also called Columbia River Sahaptin. It is currently spoken as a first language by a few dozen elders and some adults in the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. Some sources say that Umatilla is derived from imatilám-hlama: hlama means 'those living at' or 'people of' and there is an ongoing debate about the meaning of imatilám, but it is said to be an island in the Columbia River. B. Rigsby and N. Rude mention the village of ímatalam that was situated at the mouth of the Umatilla River and where the language was spoken.

Phonology

Rigsby and Rude use a technical alphabet based upon the Americanist phonetic notation

Americanist phonetic notation

Americanist phonetic notation is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of Native American and European languages...

 to transcribe Umatilla, though other practical orthographies also exist.

Vowels

	ront vowel|front textures	central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...	back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
high	i, ii	ɨ	u, uu
low		a, aa

All long vowels are written as clusters of identical short vowels.

• The pronunciation of /a/ ranges from [ɑ] to [ʌ] and it shifts to [a] or [ɛ] when preceded or followed by /y/.
• The pronunciation of /aa/ ranges from [a:] to [ɑ:].
• The pronunciation of /i/ ranges from [ɪ] to [i] and it shifts to [e] near /q qʼ x̣/.
• /ii/ has a schwa-like offglide before uvulars and it shifts to [e] after uvulars.
• /ɨ/ is pronounced [ɨ].
• /u/ is pronounced [u] and it shifts to [o] near uvulars.
• /uu/ is pronounced [u:] and it shifts to [o] near uvulars.

Vowels of different quality never appear in clusters. Allowed diphthongs are the following: /ay aay aw aaw iw iiw uy uuy/.

Consonants

	bilabial	dental	dental continuant Continuant A continuant is a sound produced with an incomplete closure of the vocal tract. That is, any sound except a stop or nasal. An affricate is considered to be a complex segment, composed of both a stop and a continuant.-See also:...	lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....	alveopalatal	velar	labiovelar	uvular	labio-uvular	laryngeal Laryngeal consonant A laryngeal consonant is generally synonymous with a glottal consonant; that is, with , , and .Besides the glottis , the larynx includes the epiglottis and aryepiglottic folds, though epiglottal and aryepiglottal consonants are usually counted as radical rather than as laryngeal...
stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...  & affricate	p	t	c	ƛ	č	k		q		ʼ
glottalized stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...  & affricate	pʼ	tʼ	cʼ	ƛʼ	čʼ	kʼ	kʼʷ	qʼ	qʼʷ
spirant Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...  & continuant Continuant A continuant is a sound produced with an incomplete closure of the vocal tract. That is, any sound except a stop or nasal. An affricate is considered to be a complex segment, composed of both a stop and a continuant.-See also:...			s	ł	š	x	xʷ	x̣	x̣ʷ	h
nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...	m	n
lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....		l
glide Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...	w		y

Consonant clusters are common and show few restrictions. All words begin with a consonant, even though according to orthographic conventions, an initial glottal stop before a vowel is not written and initial unstressed /ʼɨ/ is not written before /m n l/ plus a consonant. Initial clusters of up to three consonants are allowed (pccák 'pepper'), medials of up to five consonants and finals of up to four consonants (látx̣tx̣ 'ashes'). Clusters of identical consonants also occur: qqápni 'silly', ččù 'quiet'.
The laryngeals /h ʼ/ usually occur in initial position and sometimes in intervocalic position.

Syllable structure

As yet, no detailed description of syllable structure in Umatilla Sahaptin has been written.

Stress

Primary stress is distinctive and is indicated by an acute accent. It occurs on one syllable of a word. Stress contrast can be seen in the following examples: ámapa 'husband' (objective case) and amápa 'island' (locative case); páqʼinušana 'he saw him' and paqʼínušana 'they saw (him)'. Nondistinctive secondary and lesser stresses occur phonetically and are conditioned by phonetic and syntactic environments.

Phonological processes

Alternation in the phonetic shapes of morphemes is frequent and most often vocalic.

Vocalic alternations result from processes (ablaut, epenthesis

Epenthesis

In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....

 and truncation) that can be morphologically or phonologically conditioned.

Consonantal alternations arise from two processes: velar stops /k kʼ/ may palatalize to /c
č/ and affricates /c č/ become /t/ before /s š/. For instance, /c/ + /š/ becomes /t/ + /š/.

Morphology

The morphological structure of Umatilla and other Sahaptin dialects is synthetic to mildly polysynthetic.
The processes used are clisis, reduplication, ablaut, compounding, suppletion, order and the most common one is affixation (suffixation in particular).

Nouns, adjectives and pronouns inflect for number and case. There are three number categories: singular, dual and plural. The singular is not marked. The dual is marked by the suffix -in (with allomorphs -win, -yn or -n depending on the final). There are two main ways to mark the plural: with the suffix -ma (tílaaki-ma 'women") and by full or partial reduplication (pšwá 'stone', pšwápšwa 'stones'). These two markers can sometimes co-exist in the same word. Several nouns feature irregular plural marks that might have been more widely used in the past, such as the prefix a- and the suffix -tu.

Verbs have the most complex morphology of all the parts of speech.
Their internal structure is characterized by three major positions:


1) the pronominal prefix

This position is not necessarily occupied, it depends on the aspects of sentence structure external to the verb.


2) the theme

It can be composed of one or several elements. Theme-derivational processes include notions such as the distribution of action and the iteration of action which is expressed by the reduplication of a part of or the totality of the theme (i-ƛúp-ƛúp-ša 'he keeps on jumping up and down', where ƛúp means 'to jump'). Affixations of adverbial notions also occur: qá- 'suddenly', máy- 'in the morning, twá- 'with the edge of a long object', tísɨm- 'while sitting'.

3) the auxiliary suffix complex

Its inflectional system marks the verbs for:

• mood: indicative (unmarked), conditional and imperative
• aspect: imperfective for an action in process (suffix -ša, -šan), customary for the usual character of an action (suffix -x̣a, -x̣an)
• tense
• directionality for motion verbs: cislocative suffix -ɨm (motion or activity towards or with respect to speaker), translocative suffix -kik (motion away from the speaker).

Syntax

Umatilla, like other varieties of Sahaptin, is characterized by a free word order and a complex case-marking system.

Noun case endings

	Nonhuman	Human
		Singular	Dual	Plural
Unmarked	kʼúsi (horse)	ɨwínš (man)	awínšin	awínšma
Inverse ergative Ergative case The ergative case is the grammatical case that identifies the subject of a transitive verb in ergative-absolutive languages.-Characteristics:...	kʼúsinɨm	ɨwínšnɨm	no dual	no plural
Obviative ergative Ergative case The ergative case is the grammatical case that identifies the subject of a transitive verb in ergative-absolutive languages.-Characteristics:...	kʼúsiyin	ɨwínšin	no dual	no plural
Objective	kʼúsina	ɨwínšna	awínšinaman	awínšmaaman
Comitative	kʼúsiyin	ɨwínšin	no dual	no plural
Genitive	kʼúsinmí	ɨwínšmí	awínšinamí	awínšmaamí
Benefactive	kʼúsiyay	ɨwínšmíyay	awínšinamíyay	awínšmaamíyay
Dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....	kʼúsiyaw	ɨwínšmíyaw	awínšinamíyaw	awínšmaamíyaw
Allative	kʼúsikan	ɨwínšmíkan	awínšinamíkan	awínšmaamíkan
Ablative	kʼúsikni	ɨwínšmíkni	awínšinamíkni	awínšmaamíkni
Instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...	kʼúsiki	ɨwínšmíki	awínšinamíki	awínšmaamíki
Locative	kʼúsipa	ɨwínšmípa	awínšinamípa	awínšmaamípa

External links

• http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/prog305/transcript_sn.htm;
• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=uma;
• http://www.trailtribes.org/umatilla/language.htm