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Nłeʔkepmxcin

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Nłeʔkepmxcin is spoken along the Fraser, Thompson, and Nicola river valleys, in and around the town of Merritt, British Columbia. Please contact me if there are any mistakes or omissions on these pages.

I have seen at least two orthographies in relatively recent publications. The first is based on the Americanist tradition, and contains such letters as ƛ̓ and ə. The other is a version of the Bouchard system which has been implemented for several B.C. languages.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions 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.  

The Canadian Census counts 670 Thompson (Ntlakapamux) speakers in 2006, down from from 720 in 2001. According to Howe and Cook, there are 400 speakers.

Community Names

(Not available yet)

Consonants – Americanist Orthography

  bilabial alveolar alveolar affricate alveolar affricate retracted lateral palatal velar rounded velar uvular rounded uvular pharyngeal rounded pharyngeal glottal
voiceless stop
p
t
c
c̣
k
kʷ
q
qʷ
ʔ
ejective stop
p̓
t̓
c̓
ƛ̓
k̓
k̓ʷ
q̓
q̓ʷ
voiceless fricative
θ
s
ṣ
ł
x
xʷ
x̣
x̣ʷ
h
nasal / resonant
m
n
z
l
y
ɣ
w
ʕ
ʕʷ
glottalised n / r
m̓
n̓
z̓
l̓
y̓
ɣ̓
w̓
ʕ̓
ʕ̓ʷ

Vowels – Americanist Orthography

  front central back
high
i
u
high retracted
ị
mid
e
ə
o
mid retracted
ə̣
low
a

Notes

  • Stress is marked by an acute accent, á.

Consonants – Bouchard Orthography

  bilabial alveolar alveolar affricate alveolar affricate retracted lateral palatal velar rounded velar uvular rounded uvular pharyngeal rounded pharyngeal glottal
voiceless stop
p
t
ts
tss
k
kw
ḵ
ḵw
7
ejective stop
p’
t’
ts’
tl’
k’
kw’
ḵ’
ḵw’
voiceless fricative
s
ss
lh
x
xw
x̱
x̱w
h
nasal / resonant
m
n
z
l
y
g
w
g̱
g̱w
glottalised n / r
m̓
n̓
z̓
l̕
y̓
g̓
w̓
g̱̓
g̱̓w

Vowels – Bouchard Orthography

  front central back
high
i
u
mid
e
o
low
a

Notes

  • The Bouchard orthography treats vowels quite differently from the Americanist.
    Americanist Bouchard
    a
    a, o
    e
    a
    ə
    e, u
    ə̣
    e, o
    i
    i
    ị
    i
    o
    o, u
    u
    u
  • The sound /θ/ occurs very very rarely. This orthography has no means to write this sound.

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Last Update: September 9, 2010