Documentation:RelLex/SENĆOŦEN: a Dictionary of the Saanich Language

SENĆOŦEN: a Dictionary of the Saanich Language

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Language Name

Northern Straits Salish.

Alternate Language Names

Saanich, SENĆOŦEN, Klallam.

Region

British Columbia, Canada; Washington, United States.

Who

Timothy Montler.

Others Involved

Anne Jimmy, Belinda Claxton, TISTE Baptiste Jimmy, Cecelia Jim, Christopher Paul, Dave Elliot, Sr., Elsie Claxton, Esther Harry, Ernie Olsen, Earl Claxton, Gabriel Bartleman, Helen Jack, Irvin Jimmy, Ivan Morris, Jane Tate, Lavina Charles, Louis Claxton, Mary Jack, Manson Pelkey, Norman Williams, Philip Pelkey, Richard Harry, Raymond Sam, Stella Wright, Victor Joseph, Violet Williams (Elders); John Elliott, Linda Elliott, Jim Elliott (Language Contribution); Janet Leonard, Rebecca Gignac, Philip Kevin Paul, Elisha Elliott, Jacqueline Jim, PENÁ Elliott, David Underwood, Ivy Seward, Maddie Bartleman (Research Apprentices); Tye Swallow, Ken Foster, Adelynne Claxton, Gwen Underwood, Chief Harvey Underwood (Community Support); Thom Hess, Randy Bouchard, Dorothy Kennedy, Donna Gerdts (Linguistic Assistance); Nancy Turner (Ethnobotany Knowledge); Brenda Sims, Kim Campbell, Warren Burggren, Art Goven, David Holdeman, Geoff Gamble (Institutional Assistance); Robert Hsu (Technical Support); Angela Collins, Elizabeth Camilleri, Ivy Doak, Patrick Montler (Proofreading); the Phillips Fund of the American Philosophical Society, the Jacobs Funds of the Whatcom Museum, the University of North Texas, the National Endowment for the Humanities (Funding).

Several of the elders involved contributed to this dictionary not only by providing their own knowledge of the language, but by assisting in language documentation from other elders in the latter part of the twentieth century and by assisting the author of this dictionary in translating and transcribing previous recordings, entry checking, and acting as translators during recording sessions with other elders. Elders who contributed heavily in these ways are Belinda Claxton, Elsie Claxton, Louis Claxton, and Violet Williams.

Publishing Information

Published 2018 by University of Washington Press, Seattle.

How People are Cited

People are cited in the frontmatter of the dictionary. Speakers are cited by name, initials, photo, familial/community relations, and their participation in the dictionary under Contributing Native-Speaking Elders starting on p. viii and by their initials within entries.

How Information is Cited

Speakers, including those who contributed via previously recorded materials, are cited under Contributing Native-Speaking Elders and by their initials within entries. Previously recorded materials are also cited under Contributing Native-Speaking Elders. Previously published materials are cited under References.

Where is Information Coming from

Information in this dictionary primarily comes from speakers, both those who worked directly with the dictionary's author throughout his years of fieldwork and those who had been previously recorded by other language workers. Previously recorded materials used in the creation of this dictionary include the following (for each item listed, the speaker is listed first, followed by the language worker): Baptiste Jimmy recorded by Earl Claxton, Sr. in 1981, Cecelia Jim recorded by Violet Williams in 1975, Christopher Paul recorded by anthropologist Randy Bouchard in 1971, Dave Elliot, Sr. recorded by linguist Thom Hess, Ernie Olsen recorded by Thom Hess in 1974, Jane Tate recorded by anthropologist/linguist Wayne Suttles in 1962, Philip Pelkey recorded by Christopher Paul in 1971, Richard Harry recorded in 1969 possibly by linguist Barbara Efrat, Raymond Sam recorded by Janet Leonard from 2007 to 2009 and at another time by Belinda Claxton, and Stella Wright recorded by Thom Hess in the 1980s.

This dictionary also gathered information from previously published materials as listed under References on p. xx, many of which were the author's previously published materials. Unpublished written resources also used were the handwritten and typed notes from Dave Elliot's elder language classes held in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Tools and Framework used

This dictionary is available as a physical book.

Access

This dictionary is available through libraries. It is also available for purchase for USD $155 from University of Washington Press.

Included Languages and Directionality

Northern Straits Salish to English; English to Northern Straits Salish.

Dialects Included

This dictionary includes information from the Saanich (SENĆOŦEN) dialect.

Type of Dictionary

This is a bilingual, bidirectional dictionary followed by an affex index and a root index.

How are Entries Organised

Entries are organized alphabetically by Northern Straits Salish in the first section of the dictionary, SENĆOŦEN, according to the alphabet listed on p. xii and at the bottom of each page of the dictionary. Entries in this section include the SENĆOŦEN headword, the phonetic spelling, its English definition(s), etymological/cultural/usage commentary, the initials of contributing speakers (every speaker who affirmed the word is listed), example phrases in SENĆOŦEN (also listed in phonemic spelling, followed by the English translation and the initials of the contributing speaker), more specific cultural/historical commentary deemed necessary by the elders, variant spellings of the SENĆOŦEN headword (may include example phrases using the variant spelling), and an analysis showing the root and all identifiable affixes and reduplication. Some entries include a stem for subject suffixes if the stem is different from the headword.

Entries are organized alphabetically by English in the second section of the dictionary, English-SENĆOŦEN Index. Entries in this section include an English headword, English synonyms or related terms in English, and the SENĆOŦEN translations of the listed terms. This section is not meant to be used as an English to SENĆOŦEN dictionary. It is intended to be an index redirecting users to the SENĆOŦEN to English section of the dictionary.

The frontmatter includes information about the language, including information on the orthography, a pronunciation guide, and brief descriptions of word and sentence structures.

The end of the dictionary includes two indexes. The SENĆOŦEN Affix Index lists all of the affixes found in SENĆOŦEN, listed alphabetically by SENĆOŦEN. Prefixes are listed first, followed by grammatical suffixes, and then lexical suffixes. Each entry includes the SENĆOŦEN affix headword, its part of speech, variant spellings, its English translation(s), a more detailed description of its function in word formation, and all of the example sentences used in the dictionary containing that affix in SENĆOŦEN followed by the English translation and the initials of the contributing speakers. The SENĆOŦEN Root Index lists each root and the words in the dictionary that are formed on that root. Entries are also listed alphabetically by SENĆOŦEN. Every word in the dictionary, except place names, can be found in the root index. Entries include the SENĆOŦEN root headword written phonemically, its English translation, derivational forms (structured through levels of indentation) written phonemically, an analysis of the derivational form using the phonemic spelling and in English, and the form using the SENĆOŦEN orthography.

Other Features

Feature	Included	More Information
Guide to use and understand	✅	A detailed description in the frontmatter starting on p. xvi
Audio	❌
Images	❌	However, there are photos of all contributing elders
Example phrases	✅	In most entries
Speakers marked	✅	Cited by their initials as detailed in the frontmatter starting on p. viii
Dialects marked	❌	There is only one dialect included

External Links

Reference on WorldCat: https://search.worldcat.org/title/1031913636

This dictionary can be purchased for USD $155 from the University of Washington Press: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295743851/sencoten/

A news article announcing this dictionary's publication by Liz McArthur (2018) on CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/new-dictionary-sencoten-language-1.4797281