Comox language
Comox or Éy7á7juuthem is a Coast Salish language historically spoken in the northern Georgia Strait region, spanning the east coast of Vancouver Island and the northern Sunshine Coast and adjoining inlets and islands. More specifically, ʔayajuθəm was traditionally spoken in Bute Inlet, in Squirrel Cove, and in Sliammon, located in the area now known as Powell River.
It has two main dialects, Island Comox, associated with the K'omoks First Nation, and Mainland Comox. Whereas there Comox speaks Island dialect, the Sliammon, Klahoose, and Homalco peoples speak ʔayajuθəm, which is referred to by some as "Mainland Comox dialect". As of 2012, the Island Comox dialect has no remaining speakers. The term comox is not a Comox word, but rather a Kwak'wala term meaning "plenty", "abundance", or "wealth”. So Comox is not an ʔayajuθəm term, but is Wakashan based.
ʔayajuθəm means “the language of our people” in Sliammon, Klahoose, and Homalco languages.
Efforts to revitalize, rejuvenate, and revive ʔayajuθəm. In Powell River, Campbell River, and Cortez island have started projects to help save ʔayajuθəm. Children in daycare, preschool are being taught ʔayajuθəm in schools on Cortez Island, Campbell River and is now being taught in school district #47. ʔayajuθəm is also being accepted as a second language that fulfills graduation requirements. In Powell River, ʔayajuθəm is taught from daycare through grade 12.
A community accord was signed in 2003 between Sliammon First Nation and the municipality of Powell River. The municipality of Powell River has started to place the traditional Sliammon names in addition to the settler names on signs found throughout the district.
A Sliammon iPhone app was released in March 2012. An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at First Voices. In addition to the First Voices site, there are ʔayajuθəm dictionaries from Sliammon and Homalco, CD's containing ʔayajuθəm and children's books containing The ʔayajuθəm language are available throughout Powell River, Campbell River, and Cortez Island.
Many Sliammon, Klahoose and Homalco do not identify as Comox, and Comox is seen by many separate and more closely linked to the kwakwaka'wakw people as Comox people speak this language. Island Comox became very rare in the late 1800s as Lekwiltok became the more common language spoken by the island Comox.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonants of Comox are depicted below in IPA and the Americanist orthography of H. R. Harris II and D. I. Kennedy when it differs from the IPA.Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
Close | |||
Mid | |||
Open |
Allophony
may be pronounced:- between, palatal or velar, non-glottalized consonants; between such a consonant and a final word boundary. There are also a certain number of grammatical environments where the tense form of the high front vowel is required.
- after a, uvular or glottal consonant.
- elsewhere
- in the same conditions as .
- elsewhere
- in the same conditions as .
- elsewhere
- between, palatal or velar consonants.
- elsewhere
- before a.
- after a, palatal or velar consonant.
- following a velar rounded consonant.
- elsewhere.
- before a.
- after a or uvular rounded consonant.
- stressed before a or uvular consonant.
Morphology
Comox has essentially lost all derivational prefixes. It is the only language in the Salish family to have lost the nominalizing prefix s- from its morphological inventory.
However, the morphologically mirrored -s interestingly serves as a marker for 3rd person possession. Hagège has found certain cases where both the prefixive s- and the suffixive -s occur in circumspection. Kroeber is wary to support the finding, but offers the following: "This would appear to be a complex of the nominalizing prefix s- and the third person possessive -s; that is, the third person form of the sort of nominalized construction widely used for subordination in Salish.".
In his review of Hagège's grammar of the language, Paul D. Kroeber states, "After diminutive CV reduplication, all CVC roots lose their vowel, regardless of what the vowel is." Kroeber gives the following example: wot'-o-t 'bend it', wo-wt'-o-t 'bend it a little bit'.
The affixes representing possession in Comox are much different than those of their Salishan counterparts. 1st person singular and plural and 2nd person singular appear as prefixes, while 2nd person plural and 3rd person appear as suffixes.
Grammatical categories
Number
"Reduplicated counting forms with explicit reference to 'people' can be found in a large number of different Salish languages. All the basic formal shapes of reduplication in Salish may be used to create the 'people' counting forms.".Comox numbers for 'people':
- 1 – páʔa
- 2 – sáʔa
- 3 – čálas
- 4 – mus
- 5 – síyačix
- 6 – t'áxam
- 7 – c'oʔčis
- 8 – táʔčis
- 9 – tígyixw
- 10 – úpan
- pí-paʔa
- sí-saʔa
Control
The inceptive reduplication of Comox is closely tied to the marking of control. In words like tih 'big', -VC reduplicates to create the inceptive form tih-ih 'get big'. Control is then marked by further affixation: "The CTr suffix regularly has the form -at after –VC".
Duratives
"The durative is used for activities carried out over an extended period or habitually, such as a means of employment". Thus, duratives demonstrate intervallic aspect. Here is an example of a durative in Comox:Inceptive
"An inceptive prefix can mark the gradual, beginning stages of an event or state". In Comox, this is largely achieved through –VC reduplication. The following example illustrates this process:- pəs-əs 'get numb'
- tih-ih 'get big'
Syntax
Word Classification
In addition to the loss of derivational prefixes, Comox has also lost the nominalizer prefix in many of its uses. Further, there is extant ambiguity as to the ability – or need – to classify certain words as 'noun' or 'verb' within the Salish family. An example of the uncertainty is the word ʔiɬtən, which can appear as both a noun and a verb, and is identified through the results of its affixation. Kroeber provides the following example:verb:
noun:
The word ʔiɬtən in these examples is semantically similar though grammatically contrasted. The suffixation present in the first instance marks the word as a verb and also indicates person, in this case the second. The prefix and suffix in the latter instance nominalize the word, possession designated as seen earlier by the suffix -s.
Complements of Negative Predicates
In Coast Salish languages, all but Squamish feature subject-predicate mirroring – a sort of clausal concord – in person and number. To illustrate this point, here are examples from Catlotlq and Squamish:Catlotlq –
Squamish –
In the Catlotlq example, the negating predicate assumes the same person and number as the subject. Conversely, the Squamish negating predicate remains unmarked. The difference between Squamish and Coast Salish languages in this case, is the irrealis marker q- on the subject, a common feature of non-Salish languages.
Oblique
Like its fellow Coast Salish languages, Catlotlq utilizes a single preposition, ʔə, to mark the oblique. Below are two examples:Interestingly, the oblique marker in these examples also serves a locative purpose, identifying where the object was dropped and the individual's original orientation. The subjects and objects in both phrases are, true to form, unmarked by preposition.
Transitivity
Transitivity in Catlotlq has several suffix paradigms. With respect to one of these paradigms, Harris states, "object suffixes preced subject suffixes". He offers first a list of object pronouns as they appear with transitive roots and then gives examples of each of them in their respective environments.The objective pronouns on transitive roots are:
Applied to the root 'called':
- yáɫasʌs He called me.
- yáɫasɪs He called you.
- yáɫatʰčan I called him.
- yáɫatulmoɫʌs He called us.
- yáɫatanapɪs He called you.
- yáɫatewʔčan I called them.
- sɪqʔʌmsas He dug it for me.
- sɪqʔʌmsɪs He dug it for you.
- sɪqʔʌmtas He dug it for him.
- sɪqʔʌmtulmoɫas He dug it for us.
- sɪqʔʌmtanapɪs He dug it for you.
- sɪqʔʌmtasewʔ He dug it for them.
Tense
Future
Harris states, "there are three explicit tenses in Comox: the past, the present, and the future". He first looks at the future tense marked by the morpheme -sʌm, noting that "if the preceding pronoun ends in a the is dropped".- tahathčxwsʌm tʌ kyutʌn
You'll feed the horse. - hojoth čtʌm tʌms qaɫʌm
We'll finish the job. - sɪqʔʌmčʌpsʌm ʌkʷ qaʔʌya
You'll dig the well - yaqašsʌm tʌ cɪxcɪk
He'll use the wagon.
Past
The underlying form of the past tense is marked by the morpheme, ʔoɫ, with surface forms including that mentioned and oɫ, the latter occurring after consonants. The following list shows the past tense in its various phonological environments:- kʷačxʷi yʌqtoɫ
Have you bought that? - kʷačxʷ kʌmgyxʷoɫ
Did you meet him? - kyakyačoɫčʌtʰ
We were playing cards. - xʌypʌnomsoɫčaxʷ
You startled me. - xanaseʔoɫč ʔɪšɪms č'aʔʌnuʔ
I gave you our dog. - soʔoɫč ʌkʷʰ ʔahkʷtʰ
I went downstream. - tihʔoɫčxʷ
You were big.Present
Lexical Suffixes
Lexical suffixes in Salishan languages have referential meaning. That is, "they refer to things as body parts, shapes and concrete objects, and are part of the semantic derivation of a stem". In the next two sections of examples, suffix referents to body parts and objects will be presented.The English gloss for jɪšɪn is 'foot, leg' but the referential suffix is the truncated -šɪn, which appears in the following :
- qʷasšɪnč I burnt my foot
- λ'ešɪn Fast
- paʔašɪn Crane
- qʷasɫaɫč I burnt my neck
- totxʷɫaɫ Necklace
- čaʔʌjeʌmɛqʷ to have an itchy nose
- λʌsseʌqʷsɪcʌm I'm going to hit you on the nose
- tihhɛqʷ big nose
- lamayi bottle
- jamayi jar
- qʌxʷʌqɪɫ left side of a canoe
- ʔaʔʌjumʌqɪɫ right side of a canoe
Language Status
Today, Ethnologue estimates that there are roughly 40 speakers of Catlotlq, the majority of whom are L2 speakers. Ethnologue also lists Catlotlq as being ranked at an 8 on the Fishman scale of language loss severity, which reads: "most vestigial users of Xish are socially isolated old folks and Xish needs to be reassembled from their mouths and memories and taught to demographically unconcentrated adults".