Tsimshianic Languages

Tsimshianic Languages

The Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in southern Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in Alaska still speak Coast Tsimshian. Tsimshianic languages are considered by most linguists to be an isolate group of languages, with four main languages or lects: Coast Tsimshian, Southern Tsimshian, Nisga’a, and Gitksan.

The Tsimshianic languages were included by Edward Sapir in his Penutian hypothesis, a theory which is currently not widely accepted but is undergoing investigation by Marie-Lucie Tarpent.

Read more about Tsimshianic Languages:  Family Division, Phonology

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