Sacred Texts Native American Northwest Index Previous Next
Recorded and translated by
FRANZ BOAS
The following texts were collected in Kinkolith, at the mouth of the Nass river, during the months of November and December, 1894, while I was engaged in researches under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The principal object of these investigations was a study of the Athapascan tribe of Portland canal, and the following texts were collected incidentally only. The ethnologic results of these investigations were published in the reports of the Committee on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 1
The texts are in the Nass River dialect of the Tsimshian language. The dialect is called by the natives Nîsqa'E. The texts were obtained from four individuals--Philip, Moses, Chief Mountain, and Moody. By far the greater number of them are myths of the tribe. Judging from similar myths which I collected in previous years among the Tsimshian proper, 2 they are only moderately well told.
Possibly the method of transcribing sounds is not quite satisfactory. I have not been able to determine definitely if there are, one or two palatized l's. I consider it probable that there may be two; but in the present texts all the palatized l's are rendered by one character. There is also a certain inconsistency in my perception of the surds and sonants, the fortis, or the surd followed by a hiatus, very often sounding similar to the sonant. I have not endeavored to make the spelling throughout consistent, but have rather followed the transcription which seemed to me most appropriate at the time when I wrote the texts down.
FRANZ BOAS.
NEW YORK, June, 1899.
|
a, e, i, o, u |
have their continental sounds (short). |
|
ā, ē, ī, ō, ū |
long vowels. |
|
E |
obscure e in flower. |
|
a e i o u |
vowels not articulated, but indicated by position of the mouth. |
|
ä |
in German Bär. |
|
â |
aw in law. |
|
ô |
German voll. |
|
ê |
e in bell. |
|
ai |
i in island. |
|
au |
ow in how. |
|
L |
posterior palatal l; the tip of tongue touches the alveoli of the lower jaw, the back of the tongue is pressed against the hard palate; generally surd. The occurrence of the corresponding sonant is doubtful. Possibly there is still another l, produced a little nearer the front part of the hard palate. |
|
q |
velar k. |
|
g |
velar g. |
|
k |
English k. |
|
g* |
palatalized g, almost gy. |
|
k* |
palatized k, almost ky. |
|
x |
ch in German Bach. |
|
X |
x pronounced at the posterior border of the hard palate. |
|
x* |
palatal x as in German ich. |
|
s |
pronounced with open teeth, therefore somewhat similar to English sh. |
|
d, t, b, p, g, k |
as in English, but surd and sonant more difficult to distinguish. |
|
h |
as in English. |
|
y |
as in year. |
|
w |
as in English, probably always aspirated. |
|
l, m, n |
as in English; as terminal sounds articulated but inaudible, unless followed by a word beginning with a vowel. |
|
? |
pause; when following an initial or terminal mute, it tends to increase the stress of the latter. |
5:1 Report of the 65th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Ipswich, 1895, pp. 569-586.
5:2 Franz Boas, Indianische Sagen von der nord-pacifischen Küste Amerikas, Berlin, 1895, pp. 272-305.