SENĆOŦEN: A Grammar of the Saanich Language

Preface

    This SENĆOŦEN grammar takes the Klallam Grammar (Montler 2015) as a model and starting point. The Klallam grammar was developed piece by piece through a process of mutual guidance among elders, teachers, students, and linguist over 20 years. Therefore, this SENĆOŦEN grammar is based on a well-tested foundation. Some of the chapters are almost direct translations of the Klallam Grammar because the two languages are so similar at a basic level. Well-tested text and explanations are copied directly in many sections. This similarity will aid anyone interested in comparing the two languages. Beside that reason, it seems that if an approach has been proven to work over 20 years, then it would be senseless to change it. In later chapters, as deeper elements of the grammar are covered, the differences between Klallam and SENĆOŦEN become greater and many descriptions diverge considerably.
    A significant difference between this SENĆOŦEN grammar and the Klallam grammar is the tone of presentation of the material. The Klallam grammar was originally prepared for use by high school students and teachers with no special training in linguistics and language teaching. The SENĆOŦEN grammar, on the other hand, is aimed at a more sophisticated audience. This grammar was begun at the request of the SENĆOŦEN language teachers who all have had advanced training at the University of Victoria and are building their own curriculum and materials for all levels of language education. This SENĆOŦEN grammar aims at those teachers who are preparing for classes and who are looking for clear explanations of the grammar that they can modify for presentation to their students.
    A major similarity between this SENĆOŦEN grammar and the Klallam grammar is that they are both intended to serve dual purposes—both educational and descriptive. They are both pedagogical reference grammars. It is hoped that the linguistic scholar as well as the language teacher and learner will find this documentation of SENĆOŦEN grammar useful.
    The material that this grammar is based on was recorded from elders who spoke SENĆOŦEN as their first language. We call these ‘native speakers,’ ‘first language speakers,’ or ‘L1 speakers’ for short. It is important to understand that a living language is a changing language. The SENĆOŦEN spoken today by fluent L2 speakers is not the same as the SENĆOŦEN spoken by their recent ancestors who grew up speaking the language. You can, therefore, expect to find differences between the grammar of modern, written SENĆOŦEN and the grammar presented in this book. The patterns described in this book developed gradually over thousands of years. The patterns of modern L2 SENĆOŦEN speakers have developed quickly within a generation or two and are heavily influenced by English, the dominant colonial language. The grammatical patterns described in this book have been checked and rechecked with L1 speaking elders and thus represent a direct lineal stage in the thousand-year development of the SENĆOŦEN language.
 

This page has paths: