Columbia-Moses language

Moses-Columbia, or Columbia-Wenatchi (in Moses-Columbia: Nxaʔamxcín), is an extinct Southern Interior Salish language, also known as Nxaảmxcín. Speakers traditionally lived in the Colville Indian Reservation. The Columbia people were followers of Chief Moses.

Moses-Columbia
Columbia-Wenatchi
Nxaʔamxcín
Native to	United States of America
Region	northern Idaho, eastern Washington
Ethnicity	230 Wenatchi, Chelan, Sinkiuse-Columbia, Entiat (2000 census)[1]
Extinct	May 2, 2023, with the death of Pauline Stensgar[1]
Language family	Salishan Interior Salish Southern Moses-Columbia
Dialects	Columbian † Wenatchi †
Language codes
ISO 639-3	col
Glottolog	colu1241
ELP	Columbian
Columbian is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

There were two dialects, Columbia (Sinkiuse, Columbian) and Wenatchi (Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan). Wenatchi was the heritage language of the Wenatchi, Chelan, and Entiat tribes, Columbian of the Sinkiuse-Columbia.

Pauline Stensgar, who died on May 2, 2023 at age 96, is reported to have been the last known fully fluent speaker.^[2]

Phonology

Phonological inventory of the Columbia-Wenatchi dialect:

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal		Glottal
			central	sibilant	lateral		plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t	ts			k	kʷ	q	qʷ			ʔ
	glottalized	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ	tɬʼ		kʼ	kʷ’	qʼ	qʷ’
Fricative				s	ɬ		x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	ħ	ħʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m	n		l	j		w			ʕ	ʕʷ
	glottalized	mˀ	nˀ		lˀ	jˀ		wˀ			ʕˀ	ʕʷˀ
Trill	plain		r
	glottalized		rˀ

The three vowels in Moses-Columbia are /i/, /a/, /u/. They are sometimes transcribed as [e]; /i/, [o]; /u/, and [æ]; /a/, and could also tend to sound unstressed, almost as a schwa sound, /ə/.

Vocabulary

Here is a Nxaʔamxcín sample word

• Snkɬxwpáw’stn = ‘clothesline’ ^{(Czaykowska-Higgins & Willett 1997)[3]}