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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Americas > Canada > Nisga’a

Nisga’a

A language of Canada

ISO 639-3: ncg

Population  920. Ethnic population: 5,400 (Krauss 1997).
Region  British Columbia, Lower Nass River Valley, Aiyansh (Ay’ans), Canyon City (Gitwinksihlkw), Greenville (Laxtalts’ap or Gitxat’in), Kincolith (Gingolx) villages.
Language map  Southwestern Canada
Alternate names   Nass, Nishga, Nishka, Nisk’a, Niska
Dialects  Variation within Nisga’a not great enough to be considered dialects. High degree of inherent intelligibility between Nisga’a and Gitxsan [git].
Classification  Penutian, Tsimshian
Language use  About 1,500 speak Nisga’a as L2 or L3. Mainly adults. Consider Nisga’a and Gitxsan [git] ethnically distinct. Some older also use Tsimshian [tsi]. Others also use English.
Language development  Dictionary. Grammar. Bible portions: 1906.
Comments  Schools try to teach oral and written Nisga’a. VSO; prepositions; genitives after noun heads; articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; relatives without noun heads; question word initial in sentence; 3 or 4 prefixes, 1 inflectional suffix; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects, given and new information, topic and comment; verb affixes mark person and number of subject and object unless obscured by phonological rule; pronominal system is fully ergative; morphological passives, but not by construction; direct causatives indicated by suffixes, indirect (jussive) by prefix; CVC; nontonal. Fishermen; hunters; gatherers. Christian.