Nez Perce language
[4] The phonology of Nez Perce includes vowel harmony (which was mentioned in Noam Chomsky & Morris Halle's The Sound Pattern of English), as well as a complex stress system described by Crook (1999).
[5] The sounds / kʷ kʼʷ qʷ qʼʷ / and / ʃ / only occur in the Downriver dialect.
This system presents a challenge to common concepts of vowel harmony, since it does not appear to be based on obvious considerations of backness, height, or tongue root position.
To account for this, Katherine Nelson (2013)[8] proposes that the two sets be considered as distinct "triangles" of vowel space, each by themselves maximally dispersed, where the recessive set is somewhat retracted (further back) in comparison to the dominant: This dual system would simultaneously explain two apparent phonological aberrances: the absence of a mid front vowel /e/, and the fact that phonemic /i/ can be marked either as dominant or recessive.
As a rule, ejective consonants never occur in the coda, and the longer the sequence, the bigger the restriction.
/ˈtæhæs/ As in many other indigenous languages of the Americas, a Nez Perce verb can have the meaning of an entire sentence in English.
Verbal affixes provide information about the person and number of the subject and object, as well as tense and aspect (e.g. whether or not an action has been completed).
ʔew1/2-3.OBJʔilíwfireweeflyʔinipígrabqawstraight.throughtéego.awayceIMPERF.PRES.SGʔew ʔilíw wee ʔinipí qaw tée ce1/2-3.OBJ fire fly grab straight.through go.away IMPERF.PRES.SG'I go to scoop him up in the fire'[10]hi3.SUBJtiw̓elein.rainpááycomeePASThi tiw̓ele pááy e3.SUBJ in.rain come PAST'He arrived in the rain'[11]Asa Bowen Smith developed the Nez Perce grammar by adapting the missionary alphabet used in Hawaiian missions, and adding the consonants s and t.[12] In 1840, Asa Bowen Smith wrote the manuscript for the book Grammar of the Language of the Nez Perces Indians Formerly of Oregon, U.S..[13] The grammar of Nez Perce has been described in a grammar (Aoki 1973) and a dictionary (Aoki 1994) with two dissertations.
In addition, it has a series of hundreds of preverbs encoding instrument, posture and various unusual categories.
Verb–subject–object word order kiithispée-ten’we-m-e3→3-talk-CSL-PASTqíiw-neold.man-OBJ’iceyéeye-nmcoyote-ERGkii pée-ten’we-m-e qíiw-ne ’iceyéeye-nmthis 3→3-talk-CSL-PAST old.man-OBJ coyote-ERG‘Now the coyote talked to the old man’Subject–verb–object word order Kaaandháatya-nmwind-ERGpáa-’nahna-m-a3→3-carry-CSL-PAST’iceyéeye-necoyote-OBJKaa háatya-nm páa-’nahna-m-a ’iceyéeye-neand wind-ERG 3→3-carry-CSL-PAST coyote-OBJ‘And the wind carried coyote here’Subject–object–verb word order Kawó’thenkiithisháama-pimhusband-ERG’áayato-nawoman-OBJpée-’nehnen-e3→3-take.away-PASTKawó’ kii háama-pim ’áayato-na pée-’nehnen-ethen this husband-ERG woman-OBJ 3→3-take.away-PAST‘Now then the husband took the woman away’[18]The 2010 film Meek's Cutoff features a Cayuse man (played by Rod Rondeaux) who speaks the Downriver dialect of Nez Perce.
