1. Family: Penutian
  2. Genus: Tsimshianic

Tsimshian (Coast)

WALS coordinates: 52° 30′ N, 129° W

spoken in Canada, United States

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Tsimshian
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Tsimshian, Coast, Hartley Bay dialect,
    • Coast Tsimshian
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Large
    Vowel Quality Inventories Small (2-4)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio High
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other
    Uvular Consonants Uvular stops only
    Glottalized Consonants Ejectives and glottalized resonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/ and lateral obstruent
    The Velar Nasal No velar nasal
    Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Complex
    Tone No tones
    Fixed Stress Locations Ultimate
    Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
    Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly suffixing
    Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
    Case Syncretism No case marking
    Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Not syncretic
    Nominal Categories
    Number of Genders None
    Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems No gender
    Systems of Gender Assignment No gender
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural prefix
    Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number affixes
    Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
    Indefinite Articles No indefinite, but definite article
    Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
    Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
    Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Two-way contrast
    Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
    Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
    Number of Cases No morphological case-marking
    Asymmetrical Case-Marking Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical
    Distributive Numerals Marked by prefix
    Numeral Classifiers Obligatory
    Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers Formally similar, without interrogative
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes No tense-aspect inflection
    The Prohibitive Normal imperative + special negative
    Epistemic Possibility Affixes on verbs
    Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Indirect only
    Coding of Evidentiality Verbal affix or clitic
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb VSO
    Order of Subject and Verb VS
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
    Order of Adjective and Noun Adjective-Noun
    Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Numeral-Noun
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
    Order of Degree Word and Adjective Degree word-Adjective
    Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and AdjN
    Simple Clauses
    Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Ergative - absolutive
    Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral
    Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Split
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject pronouns in different position
    Verbal Person Marking Both the A and P arguments
    Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No zero realization
    Order of Person Markers on the Verb P precedes A
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Indirect-object construction
    Passive Constructions Absent
    Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
    Negative Morphemes Negative particle
    Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
    Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/NonReal
    Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
    Complex Sentences
    'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly
    Lexicon
    Hand and Arm Different
    Finger and Hand Different