There are three major dialects of the language, reflected in the variants of the language name: Gitksanimx̱ in the Gitanmaax area, Gitx̱sanimx̱ in the east, and Gitx̱senimx̱ in the west part of the First Nations territory.
Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventionss on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.
ISO 639-3 language code: git
Demographics
The Canadian Census counts 1,570 Gitksan speakers in 2006, up from from 1,325 in 2001. According to Howe and Cook, there are 900.
Consonants
| bilabial | alveolar | alveolar affricate | lateral | palatal | velar | rounded velar | uvular | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiced stop | b | d | j | g | gw | g̱ | ’ | ||
| voiceless stop | p | t | ts | k | kw | ḵ | |||
| ejective stop | p’ | t’ | ts’ | tl’ | k’ | kw’ | ḵ’ | ||
| voiceless fricative | s | hl | x | xw | x̱ | h | |||
| resonant | m | n | l | y | w | ||||
| glottalised resonant | ’m | ’n | ’l | ’y | ’w |
Vowels
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | i - ii | u - uu | |
| mid | e - ee | o | |
| low | a - aa |
Notes
- Long vowels are written double. Although written with one letter, ‹o› is always long.
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Last Modified:
25-Aug-2011
