The Makah language is the indigenous language spoken by the Makah. Makah has not been spoken as a first language since 2002, when its last fluent native speaker died. However, it survives as a second language, and the Makah tribe is attempting to revive the language, including through preschool classes.[4][5] The endonym for the Makah is qʷi·qʷi·diččaq.[6]
Makah, Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht belong to the Southern Nootkan branch of the Wakashan family. The Northern Wakashan languages, which are Kwak'wala, Heiltsuk-Oowekyala and Haisla, are spoken farther north, beyond the territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth.
Phonology
The phonemes (distinctive sounds) of Makah are presented below in the Makah alphabet; if the symbol in the native alphabet differs from the IPA symbol, the IPA equivalent will be given in brackets.[7]
There are five phonologically short vowels (written ⟨a e i o u⟩ and pronounced [ə], [ɛ], [ɪ], [ɔ], and [ʊ]) and five phonologically long vowels (written ⟨a· e· i· o· u·⟩ and pronounced [a], [æ], [i], [o], and [u]). There are also six diphthongs (written ⟨aw ay ey iy oy uy⟩, pronounced [aw], [aj], [e], [iː], [ɔj], and [uːj]).
Morphology
"Like other Wakashan languages, Makah inflects verbs for evidentiality, indicating the level and source of the speaker's knowledge about a statement. Some examples are shown in the following table:[8]
Example
Translation
Evidential
hi·dawʔaƛwa·d
"I hear he found it"
-wa·t, hearsay
pu·pu·q̓adʔi
"he's blowing a whistle"
-q̓adi, auditory
č̓apaccaqil
"It looks like a canoe"
-caqił, uncertain visual evidence, as trying to make out something at a distance
haʔuk̓aƛpi·dic
"I see you ate"
-pi·t, inference from physical evidence
dudu·k̓aƛx̌a·š
"He's probably singing"
-x̌a·-š, inferred probability
Alongside those examples, compare corresponding sentences without the evidentials: hi·dawʔal, "he found it"; č̓apac̓, "it's a canoe"; haʔuk̓alic, "you're eating"; dudu·k̓al, "he's singing"."
The Makah word encodes much information; Davidson (2002) outlines the formal word structure below (pg. 160),[6]
base
core suffixes
aspect
peripheral suffixes
aspect
clitic sequence
unextended word
expanded unextended word
extended word
The 'unextended word' consists of a root (the 'base'), lexical suffixes, and aspectual suffixes. It carries the 'dictionary meaning' of the word, while the clitics represent what can be thought of as 'inflections' for other grammatical categories.[6] The unextended word,[sentence fragment]
Lexical suffixes: Come in two varieties; nuclear, which can change the base's meaning or part of speech, and restrictive, which add to the base's meaning without altering the word class.[6] The latter include locational and directional suffixes.
Aspectual suffixes: While they vary in realization, the extended word can mark for the following aspects,[6]
The 'expanded unextended' word is formed by the addition of a peripheral suffix, which can change the part of speech while and often contains an aspectual value. These suffixes 'cross-cut' the core/nuclear distinction.[6] The order of the clitic sequence is as follows:[6]
=Diminutive=Temporal=Causative=Possessive=Passive-Inverse=Tense=Mood=Pronominal=Habitual=3rd Person Plural=Responsive='again'
The modal-pronominal clitics are often combined, creating a separate set of pronominal clitics for each mood.[6] Makah marks for the indicative, purposive, quotative, subordinate, inferential, mirative, conditional, relative, content interrogative and polar interrogative moods.[6]
^The phoneme inventory and Makah alphabet are from pg. 422 of Renker and Gunther (1990) and from Makah Alphabet
Bibliography
Renker, Ann M. and Gunther, Erna (1990). "Makah". In "Northwest Coast", ed. Wayne Suttles. Vol. 7 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
