Cowlitz language

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Cowlitz
Spoken in: United States 
Region: Southwestern Washington
Total speakers: extinct (ethnic population: 200)[1]
Language family: Salishan
 Tsamosan
  Cowlitz
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3: cow

The Cowlitz language is a member of the Tsamosan (Olympic) branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages.

Contents

[edit] The Cowltiz tribe

The 'Cowlitz tribe' was originally two distinct tribe: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz. Only the Lower Cowlitz spoke Cowlitz; the Upper Cowlitz, a Sahaptin tribe, spoke a dialect of Yakama.

[edit] Vocabulary

Cowlitz is most similar to Lower Chehalis, another Tsamosan language, although it does contains some oddities, such as the word for one, utsus (in contrast to the Lower Chehalis paw).

English Cowlitz
Lower Cowlitz tribe Sł'púlmš
one (number) utsus
two salli
three kałi
four mus

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ethnologue.

[edit] See also