Gitxsanimx Research Group

Gitxsanimx is an endangered Tsimshianic language spoken in Northern British Columbia. UBC's Gitxsanimx Research Group is actively engaged in analytical research, text collection, dictionary work, and the creation of pedagogical materials.

We conduct fieldwork with three speakers in Vancouver every week, and team members travel to Gitxsan territory at least once a year. Our research projects span everything from phonetics to semantics.

People

Fluent speakers

Barbara Sennott (Harris) - Daughter of Hereditary Chiefs, Chief Luus and Chief Luulak. I am from the House of Geel, born and raised in Ansba'yaxw. My mission in life is to help save the Gitxsan language.

Vincent Gogag - Hereditary Chief in the House of Gamlaxye'ltxw.

Hector Hill - from Gitsegukla.

Directors

Henry Davis
Lisa Matthewson

Affiliated faculty

Molly Babel

Graduate students

Jesse Lawrence
Andrei Anghelescu

Undergraduate students

Michael Schwan
Aidan Pine

Graduated students still in the team

Alyssa Satterwhite
Clarissa Forbes

External collaborators

Jason Brown (University of Auckland)
Tyler Peterson (University of Toronto)

Publications

Forbes, Clarissa 2012a. Gitksan relative clauses: a diagnostic for adjectives. Paper presented at the University of Toronto Welcome Workshop.

Forbes, Clarissa 2012b. Gitxsan adjectives: evidence from nominal modification. ICSNL 2012: Volume 47 (UBCWPL vol. 32).

Matthewson, Lisa in press. Gitksan Modals. To appear in International Journal of American Linguistics, July 2013.

Interesting quotes about Gitxsanimx:

'Anything glottal is kind of disappearish' (Michael Schwan, May 2013)

Contact

lisa.matthewson@ubc.ca
henry.davis@ubc.ca

Our funders include SSHRC, the Jacobs Research Fund, and the UBC Hampton Fund.