Salishan languages

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This article is about the Salish/Salishan language. For the Tacoma, Washington, neighbourhood, see Salishan, Tacoma, Washington.

The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a group of languages of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. They are characterised by agglutinativity and astonishing consonant clusters—for instance the Nuxálk word xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ (IPA: Template:IPA) meaning 'he had had a bunchberry plant' has 13 consonants in a row with no vowels. Image:Salishan langs.png

The terms Salish and Salishan are used interchangeably by Salishan linguists and anthropologists. The name Salish is actually the name of the language of Salish tribe in Montana. The name was later extended by linguists to refer to other related languages. Many languages do not have self-designations and instead have specific names for local dialects as the local group was more important culturally than larger tribal relations.

All Salishan languages are endangered—some extremely so with only three or four speakers left. Practically all languages only have speakers who are over sixty years of age, and many languages only have speakers over eighty.

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Family division

The Salishan language family consists of twenty-three languages. Below is a list of Salishan languages, dialects, and sub-dialects. This list is a linguistic classification that may not correspond to political divisions. Many Salishan groups consider their variety of speech to be a separate language rather than a dialect.

I. Bella Coola
1. Nuxálk (a.k.a. Bella Coola, Salmon River)

II. Coast Salish

A. Central Coast Salish (a.k.a. Central Salish)
2. Comox
  • Comox (a.k.a. Q’ómox̣ʷs)
  • Sliammon (Homalco-Klahoose-Sliammon) (a.k.a. ʔayʔaǰúθəm)
3. Halkomelem
Island (a.k.a. Hul’q̱’umi’num’, həl̕q̓əmín̓əm̓)
Downriver (a.k.a. Hunq’umʔiʔnumʔ)
Upriver (a.k.a. Upper Stalo, Halq’əméyləm)
4. Lushootseed (a.k.a. Puget Salish, Skagit-Nisqually, Dxʷləšúcid)
Northern
Southern
5. Nooksack (a.k.a. ɬə́čələsəm, ɬə́čælosəm) (†)
6. Pentlatch (a.k.a. Pənƛ̕áč) (†)
7. Sechelt (a.k.a. Seshelt, Shashishalhem, šášíšáɬəm)
8. Squamish (a.k.a. Sqwxwu7mish, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, sqʷx̣ʷúʔməš)
i. Straits Salish group (a.k.a. Straits)
9. Klallam (a.k.a. Clallam, Nəxʷsƛ̕áy̓emúcən)
  • Becher Bay
  • Eastern
  • Western
10. Northern Straits (a.k.a. Straits)
  • Lummi (a.k.a. Xwlemi’chosen, xʷləmiʔčósən) (†)
  • Saanich (a.k.a. SENĆOŦEN, sənčáθən, sénəčqən)
  • Samish (a.k.a. Siʔneməš)
  • Semaihmoo (a.k.a. Tah-tu-lo) (†)
  • Sooke (a.k.a. T’sou-ke, c̓awk) (†)
  • Songhees (a.k.a. Lək̓ʷəŋín̓əŋ) (†)
11. Twana (a.k.a. Skokomish, Sqʷuqʷúʔbəšq, Tuwáduqutšad) (†)
B. Tsamosan (a.k.a. Olympic)
i. Inland
12. Cowlitz (a.k.a. Lower Cowlitz, Sƛ̕púlmš) (†)
13. Upper Chehalis (a.k.a. Q̉ʷay̓áyiɬq̉) (†)
ii. Maritime
14. Lower Chehalis (a.k.a. ɬəw̓ál̕məš) (†)
15. Quinault (a.k.a. Kʷínayɬ)
C. Tillamook
16. Tillamook (a.k.a. Hutyéyu) (†)
Siletz
Tillamook

III. Interior Salish

A. Northern
17. Shuswap (a.k.a. Secwepemctsín, səxwəpməxcín)
Eastern
  • Kinbasket
  • Shuswap Lake
Western
  • Canim Lake
  • Chu Chua
  • Deadman's Creek-Kamloops
  • Fraser River
  • Pavilion-Bonaparte
18. St’at’imcets (a.k.a. Lillooet, Lilloet, St'át'imcets)
  • Lillooet-Fountain
  • Mount Currie-Douglas
19. Thompson River Salish (a.k.a. Nlaka’pamux, Ntlakapmuk, nɬeʔkepmxcín, Thompson River, Thompson Salish, Thompson, known in frontier times as the Klackarpun, Couteau or Knife Indians)
  • Lytton
  • Nicola Valley
  • Spuzzum-Boston Bar
  • Thompson Canyon
B. Southern
20. Coeur d’Alene (a.k.a. Snchitsu’umshtsn, snčícuʔumšcn)
21. Columbian (a.k.a. Columbia, Nxaʔamxcín)
  • Chelan
  • Entiat
  • Moses Columbia
  • Wenatchee (a.k.a. Pesquous)
22. Colville-Okanagan (a.k.a. Okanagan, Nsilxcín, Nsíylxcən, ta nukunaqínxcən)
Northern
  • Quilchena & Spaxomin [1]
  • Head of the Lakes
  • Penticton
  • Similkameen
  • Vernon
Southern
  • Lakes-Colville-Inchelium
  • Methow
  • San Poil-Nespelem
  • Southern Okanogan
23. Spokane-Kalispel-Flathead (a.k.a. Kalispel)
  • Flathead (a.k.a. Séliš)
  • Kalispel (a.k.a. Qalispé)

Pentlatch, Nooksack, Twana, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, Cowlitz, and Tillamook are now extinct. Additionally, the Lummi, Semiahmoo, Songhees, and Sooke dialects of Northern Straits are also extinct.

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Genetic relations

It has been proposed that the Salishan languages may be related to Wakashan and Chimakuan languages in a hypothetical Mosan family. There have also been efforts to relate the language isolate Kutenai (Kootenai) to Mosan.

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Family features

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External links

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Bibliography

  • Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa; & Kinkade, M. Dale (Eds.). (1997). Salish languages and linguistics: Theoretical and descriptive perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-015492-7.
  • Kroeber, Paul D. (1999). The Salish language family: Reconstructing syntax. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington.
  • Thompson, Laurence C. (1973). The northwest. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Linguistics in North America (pp. 979-1045). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton.
  • Thompson, Laurence C. (1979). Salishan and the northwest. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment (pp. 692-765). Austin: University of Texas Press.br:Yezhoù salichek

ca:Llengües salish de:Salish-Sprachen eo:Saliŝa lingvaro fr:Langues salish

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