MultiTree:

Name: Nez Perce Type: Language Alternate Names: Shahaptan; Chopunnish; Nimipu; Numipu; Nezperce Spoken in: USA Number of speakers: 200 (1997 H. Aoki), decreasing. Ethnic population: 2,700 (1997 H. Aoki); 612 (2000 US census) (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 20 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 150 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: nez Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Penutian, Sahaptian (Shahaptian) Parent Subgroup: Sahaptian; Sahaptin; Shahaptian; Sahaptin-Nezperce (shap) Child Dialect Groups: Downriver; Lower Nez Perce; Lower; Western (nez-low) Upriver; Upper Nez Perce; Upper; Eastern (nez-upp) Brief Description: "Nez Perce is a Sahaptian language. Two dialects are distinguished, Upriver and Downriver, correlated with the original settlement pattern along the Snake River and its tributaries in eastern Washington and Idaho. The Upriver dialect is spoken fluently by a handful of elders at Kamiah and Lapwai on the Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho, and by several more on the Colville Reservation in eastern Washington. The Downriver dialect is mainly preserved by a few speakers on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon (most of them descendants of Cayuse speakers who adopted Nez Perce in the nineteenth century). In addition to these fully fluent speakers there are between 30 and 40 speakers and semi-speakers of varying degrees of fluency, most of them in Idaho." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 19

Endangerment Status

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UNESCO Status: Critically endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Endangered