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St’at’imcets Ucwalmícwts
Spoken in:	Canada
Region:	British Columbia
Total speakers:	200 (native)
Language family:	Salishan  Interior Salish   Northern    St’at’imcets
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	sal
ISO 639-3:	lil
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

St'at'imcets (also Lillooet, Lilloet, St’át’imcets) is an Interior Salishan language spoken in southern British Columbia, Canada around the middle Fraser and Lillooet rivers by the St'at'imc people.

St'at'imcets is an endangered language with as few as 200 native speakers practically all of whom are over 60 years of age (Gordon 2005).

Contents 1 Regional varieties 2 Sounds 2.1 Consonants 2.2 Vowels 2.3 Phonotactics of roots 2.4 Orthography 2.5 Phonological processes 3 Grammar 3.1 Reduplication 4 Text 5 External links 6 Bibliography

St'at'imcets has two main dialects:

• Upper St’at’imcets (a.k.a. St’aá’imcets, Fountain)
• Lower St’at’imcets (a.k.a. Lil'wat7úlmec, Mount Currie)

Upper St'at'imcets is spoken around Fountain, Pavilion, Lillooet, and neighboring areas. Lower St'at'imcets is spoken around Mount Currie and neighboring areas. An additional subdialect called Skookumchuck is spoken within the Lower St'at'imcets dialect area, but there is no information available in van Eijk (1981, 1997) (which are the main references for this article).

St'at'imcets has 44 consonants:

		Bilabial	Dental			Postalveolar or palatal		Velar		Post- velar		Glottal
			central	lateral	retracted lateral	plain	retracted	plain	labial	plain	labial
Stops and affricates	plain	p	t			ʧ	ʧ̱	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
	glottalized	pʼ	ʦʼ	tɬʼ				kʼ	kʼʷ	qχʼ	qχʼʷ	ʔ
Fricatives				ɬ		ʃ	ʃ̱	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ
Nasals	plain	m	n
	glottalized	mʼ	nʼ
Approximants	plain		z	l	ḻ	j		ɣ	ɣʷ	ʕ	ʕʷ	h
	glottalized		zʼ	lʼ	ḻʼ	jʼ		ɣʼ	ɣʼʷ	ʕʼ	ʕʼʷ

• Obstruents consist of the stops, affricates, and fricatives. There are 22 obstruents.
• Sonorants consist of the nasals and approximants. There are 22 resonants.
• Glottalized stops are pronounced as ejective consonants. Glottalized sonorants are pronounced with creaky voice: /nʼ/ = [n̰].
• St'at'imcets contrasts glottalized sonorants with sequences of sonorants and glottal stops and even sequences of glottalized sonorants and glottal stops, for example, [ɣʷʼ] ≠ [ʔɣʷ] ≠ [ɣʷʔ] ≠ [ʔɣʼʷ] ≠ [ɣʼʷʔ]. The contrast also exists for glottalized obstruents: [qʼ] ≠ [ʔq] ≠ [qʔ] ≠ [ʔqʼ] ≠ [qʼʔ].
• The dental approximants /z, zʼ/ are pronounced alternatively as interdental fricatives [ð, ð̰] or as dental fricative s [z̪, z̪̰], depending on the dialect of St'at'imcets.
• Nonretracted /ʧ/ is laminal [ʧ̻] while retracted /ʧ̱/ is apical [ʧ̱̺].
• There are four pairs of retracted and nonretracted consonants (which alternate morphophonemically). Retraction on consonants is essentially velarization. (Note also that St'at'imcets has retracted-nonretracted vowel pairs.)
  • /ʧ/ - /ʧ̱/
  • /ʃ/ - /ʃ̱/
  • /l/ - /ḻ/
  • /l’/ - /ḻʼ/
• Among the post-velar consonants, the obstruents [q, qʷ, qχʼ, qχʼʷ, χ, χʷ] are all uvular while the post-velar approximants [ʕ, ʕʷ, ʕʼ, ʕʼʷ] are all pharyngeal approximants.

St'at'imcets has 6 vowels:

	Front				Back
	non- retracted	retracted	non- retracted	retracted	non- retracted	retracted
High	e   [e]	e̱   [ɛ]			o   [o]	o̱   [ɔ]
Mid			ə   [ə]	ə̱   [ʌ]
Low			a   [ɛ]	a̱   [a]

• The phonetic realization of the phonemes are indicated in brackets to the right.
• All retracted vowels are indicated by a line under the vowel. These retracted vowels alternate morphophemically. (Note that St'at'imcets also has retracted consonants.)
• The retracted vowel /e̱/ and the non-retracted vowel /a/ are both pronounced [ɛ] (thus there is a phonetic overlap).

The following table shows the vowels and consonants and their respective orthographic symbols.

Phoneme	Orthography	Phoneme	Orthography
Vowels
/e/	i	/e̱/	ii
/o/	u	/o̱/	o
/ə/	e	/ə̱/	v
/a/	a	/a̱/	ao
Consonants
/p/	p	/m/	m
/pʼ/	p̓	/mʼ/	m̓
/t/	t	/n/	n
/tɬʼ/	t’	/nʼ/	n̓
/ʧ/	ts	/ɬ/	lh
/ʧˠ/	ts̲	/z/	z
/ʦʼ/	ts̓	/zʼ/	z̓
/k/	k	/ɣ/	r
/kʷ/	kw	/ɣʷ/	w
/kʼ/	k̓	/ɣʼ/	r̓
/kʼʷ/	k̓w	/ɣʼʷ/	w̓
/q/	q	/ʕ/	g
/qʷ/	qw	/ʕʷ/	gw
/qχʼ/	q̓	/ʕʼ/	g̓
/qχʼʷ/	q̓w	/ʕʼʷ/	g̓w
/ʔ/	7	/h/	h
/ʃ/	s	/j/	y
/ʃ̱/	s̱	/jʼ/	y̓
/x/	c	/l/	l
/xʷ/	cw	/ḻ/	ḻ
/χ/	x	/lʼ/	l’
/χʷ/	xw	/ḻʼ/	ḻ’

• epenthetic /ə/.

Post-velar Harmony (retraction):

• Within roots, there is a restriction that all consonant and vowel retracted-nonretracted pairs must be of the same type. That is, a root may not contain both a retracted and a nonretracted vowel or consonant. This is a type of Retraced Tongue Root harmony (also called pharyngeal harmony) involving both vowels and consonants that is an areal feature of this region of North America, shared by other Interior Salishan and non-Salishan languages (for example see Chilcotin vowel flattening).

• In addition to the root harmony restriction, some suffixes harmonize with the root to which they are attached. For instance, the inchoative suffix /-ɣʷélʼx/:

		ama   good	/ʔáma/	+ /-ɣʷélʼx/	→	[ʔamaɣʷélʼx]	amagwil’c   to get better
		qaoḻ   bad	/qá̱ḻ/	+ /-ɣʷél’x/	→	[qa̱ḻɣʷé̱ḻʼx]	qaoḻgwiiḻ’c   to get spoiled

St'at'imcets has two main types of words:

1. full words
   1. variable words
   2. invariable words
2. clitics
   1. proclitics
   2. enclitics

The variable word type may be affected by many morphological processes, such as prefixation, suffixation, infixation, reduplication, and glottalization.

• question of category of noun

St’át’imcets, as is typical of the Salishan family, has several types of reduplication (and triplication) that have a range of functions such as expressing plural, diminutive, aspect, etc.

		Initial reduplication:
		kl’ácw	'muskrat'	→	kl’ekl’ácw	'muskrats'	Plural
		stálhlec	'standing up'	→	státalhlec	'to keep standing up'	Continuative	(has s- prefix, stem: -tálhlec)
		sráp	'tree'	→	srepráp	'trees'	Collective/Plural	(stem: -rap)
		snúk’wa7	'friend'	→	snek’wnúk’wa7	'friends'	Collective/Plural	(stem: -núk’wa7)
		Final reduplication/triplication:
		p’líxw	'boil over'	→	p’líxwexw	'boiling over'	Ongoing Action
		p’líxw	'boil over'	→	p’lixwixwíxw	'to keep boiling over'	Continuative/Intensive
		lhésp	'rash'	→	lhéslhsep	'rash all over'	Collective/Plural	(stem: lhes-) (the e before -p is epenthetic)

A more complicated type of reduplication is the internal reduplication used to express the diminutive. In this case the consonant before a stressed vowel is reduplicated after the stressed vowel and usually the vowel then changes to e (IPA: [ə]). Examples are below:

		Internal reduplication:
		naxwít	'snake'	→	naxwéxwt	'worm'	(naxwé-xw-t)
		sqáxa7	'dog'	→	sqéqxa7	'pup'	(sqé-q-xa7)
		sqláw’	'beaver'	→	sqlélew’	'little beaver'	(sqlé-l-ew’)	(the extra e here is an epenthetic vowel)

More than one reduplicative process can occur in a given word:

				Diminutive		Plural+Diminutive
		sqáxa7	'dog'	sqéqxa7	'pup'	sqexqéqxa7	'pups'
		s-qéxa7		s-qé-q-xa7		s-qex-qé-q-xa7

St’át’imcets has several other variants of the above types. Reduplication is further complicated by consonant glottalization (see van Eijk (1997) for details).

The following is a portion of a story in van Eijk (1981:87) told by Rosie Joseph of Mount Currie.

St'at'imcets:

Nilh aylh lts7a sMáma ti húz̓a qweqwl’el’tmínan. N̓as ku7 ámlec áku7 tsípunsa. Nilh t’u7 st’áksas ti xláka7sa. Tsicw áku7, nilh t’u7 ses wa7, kwánas et7ú i sqáwtsa. Wa7 ku7 t’u7 áti7 xílem, t’ak ku7 knáti7 ti pú7y̓acwa. Nilh ku7 t’u7 skwánas, lip̓in̓ás ku7. Nilh ku7 t’u7 aylh stsuts: "Wa7 nalh aylh láti7 kapv́ta!" Nilh ku7 t’u7 aylh sklhaka7mínas ku7 láti7 ti sqáwtsa cwilhá k̓a, nao7q̓ spawts ti kwanensása...

English translation:

This time it is Máma I am going to talk about. She went that way to get some food from her roothouse. So she took along her bucket. She got there, and she stayed around, taking potatoes. She was doing that, and then a mouse ran by there. So she grabbed it, she squeezed it. So she said: "You get all squashed now!" So she opened her hand and she let go of what turned out to be a potato, it was a rotten potato that she had caught....

• Audio sample of spoken Lower St'at'imcets and a few Lil'wat songs
• map of Northwest Coast First Nations (including St'at'imc)
• Bibliography of Materials on the Lillooet Language (YDLI)
• The Lillooet Language (YDLI)
• St'at'imcets - The Lillooet Language
• The St’at’imcets Language (Native Language, Font, & Keyboard)
• USLCES webpages (USLCES webpages)
• Ethnologue: Lillooet

• Frank, Beverley, Rose Whitley, and Jan van Eijk. Nqwaluttenlhkalha English to Statimcets Dictionary. Volume One. 2002. ISBN 189671918X
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Joseph, Marie. (1979). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for beginners. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-920938-00-0.
• Larochell, Martina; van Eijk, Jan P.; & Williams, Lorna. (1981). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Lillooet legends and stories. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-920938-03-5.
• Lillooet Tribal Council. (1993). Introducing St'at'imcets (Fraser River Dialect): A primer. Lillooet, British Columbia: Lillooet Tribal Council.
• Matthewson, Lisa, and Beverley Frank. When I was small = I wan kwikws : a grammatical analysis of St'át'imc oral narratives. First nations languages. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005. ISBN 0774810904
• Poser, William J. (2003). The status of documentation for British Columbia native languages. Yinka Dene Language Institute Technical Report (No. 2). Vanderhoof, British Columbia: Yinka Dene Language Institute. (2003 updated version).
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1981). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Teach yourself Lillooet: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for advanced learners. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-920938-02-7.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1985). The Lillooet language: Phonology, morphology, syntax. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1988). Lillooet forms for 'pretending' and 'acting like'. International Journal of Linguistics, 54, 106-110.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1990). Intransitivity, transitivity and control in Lillooet Salish. In H. Pinkster & I. Grenee (Eds.), Unity in diversity: Papers presented to Simon C. Dik on his 50th birthday (pp. 47-64). Dordrecht, Holland: Foris.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1993). CVC reduplication and infixation in Lillooet. In A. Mattina & T. Montler (Eds.), American Indian linguistics and ethnography in honor of Laurence C. Thompson (pp. 317-326). University of Montana occasional papers in linguistics (No. 10). Missoula: University of Montana.
• van Eijk, Jan P. (1997). The Lillooet language: Phonology, morphology, syntax. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0625-7. (Revised version of van Eijk 1985).
• Williams, Lorna; van Eijk, Jan P.; & Turner, Gordon. (1979). Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for intermediates. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN 0-920938-01-9.