Salishan languages

Salishan
Geographic
distribution:		 Pacific Northwest and Interior Plateau/Columbia Plateau in Canada and the United States
Subdivisions:
Tsamosan
ISO 639-2 and 639-5: sal

Pre-contact distribution of Salishan languages (in red).

The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana).[1] They are characterised by agglutinativity and astonishing consonant clusters — for instance the Nuxálk word xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ (IPA: [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]) meaning ‘he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant’ has thirteen obstruent consonants in a row with no vowels.

The terms Salish and Salishan are used interchangeably by Salishan linguists and anthropologists. The name Salish is the endonym of the Flathead Nation. Linguists later applied the name to 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 extinct or endangered—some extremely so, with only three or four speakers left. Practically all Salishan languages have only speakers who are over sixty years of age, and many have only speakers over eighty. Salish is most commonly written using the Americanist phonetic notation to account for the various vowels and consonants that do not exist in most modern alphabets.

Contents

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.

Bella Coola

1. Nuxálk (aka Bella Coola, Salmon River)

Coast Salish

A. Central Coast Salish (aka Central Salish)
2. Comox
  • Island Comox (aka Qʼómox̣ʷs)
  • Sliammon (Homalco-Klahoose-Sliammon) (aka ʔayʔaǰúθəm)
3. Halkomelem
Island (aka Hulʼq̱ʼumiʼnumʼ, həl̕q̓əmín̓əm̓)
Downriver (aka Hunqʼumʔiʔnumʔ)
Upriver (aka Upper Sto:lo, Halqʼəméyləm)
4. Lushootseed (aka Puget Salish, Skagit-Nisqually, Dxʷləšúcid)
Northern
Southern
5. Nooksack (aka Nooksack ɬə́čələsəm, ɬə́čælosəm) (†)
6. Pentlatch (aka Pənƛ̕áč) (†)
7. Sháshíshálh (aka Sechelt, Seshelt, Shashishalhem, šášíšáɬəm)
8. Squamish (aka Sḵwx̱wú7mesh snichim, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Sqwxwu7mish, sqʷx̣ʷúʔməš)
i. Straits Salish group (aka Straits)
9. Klallam (aka Clallam, Nəxʷsƛ̕áy̓emúcən)
  • Becher Bay
  • Eastern
  • Western
10. Northern Straits (aka Straits)
  • Lummi (aka Xwlemiʼchosen, xʷləmiʔčósən) (†)
  • Saanich (aka SENĆOŦEN, sənčáθən, sénəčqən)
  • Samish (aka Siʔneməš)
  • Semiahmoo (aka Tah-tu-lo) (†)
  • Sooke (aka Tʼsou-ke, c̓awk) (†)
  • Songhees (aka Lək̓ʷəŋín̓əŋ) (†)
11. Twana (aka Skokomish, Sqʷuqʷúʔbəšq, Tuwáduqutšad) (†)
B. Tsamosan (aka Olympic)
i. Inland
12. Cowlitz (aka Lower Cowlitz, Sƛ̕púlmš) (†)
13. Upper Chehalis (aka Q̉ʷay̓áyiɬq̉) (†)
  • Oakville Chehalis
  • Satsop
  • Tenino Chehalis
ii. Maritime
14. Lower Chehalis (aka ɬəw̓ál̕məš) (†)
15. Quinault (aka Kʷínayɬ)
C. Tillamook
16. Tillamook (aka Hutyéyu) (†)
Siletz
Tillamook

Interior Salish

A. Northern
17. Shuswap (aka Secwepemctsín, səxwəpməxcín)
Eastern
  • Kinbasket
  • Shuswap Lake
Western
  • Canim Lake
  • Chu Chua
  • Deadman's Creek–Kamloops
  • Fraser River
  • Pavilion-Bonaparte
18. Lillooet (aka Lilloet, St'át'imcets)
  • Lillooet-Fountain
  • Mount Currie–Douglas
19. Thompson River Salish (aka Nlakaʼpamux, Ntlakapmuk, nɬeʔkepmxcín, Thompson River, Thompson Salish, Thompson, known in frontier times as the Hakamaugh, Klackarpun, Couteau or Knife Indians)
  • Lytton
  • Nicola Valley
  • Spuzzum–Boston Bar
  • Thompson Canyon
B. Southern
20. Coeur d’Alene (aka Snchitsuʼumshtsn, snčícuʔumšcn)
21. Columbia-Moses (aka Columbia, Nxaʔamxcín)
  • Chelan
  • Entiat
  • Columbian
  • Wenatchee (aka Pesquous)
22. Colville-Okanagan (aka Okanagan, Nsilxcín, Nsíylxcən, ta nukunaqínxcən)
Northern
Southern
23. Spokane–Kalispel–Bitterroot Salish–Upper Pend d'Oreille
  • Salish (aka Séliš, Bitterroot Salish, Flathead)
  • Kalispel (aka Qalispé)
  • Chewelah
  • Kalispel (aka Qlispé, Lower Pend d'Oreille, Lower Kalispel)
  • Upper Pend d’Oreile (aka Čłqetkʷmcin, Qlispé)

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.

Genetic relations

No relationship to any other language is well established. The most plausible connection is with the language isolate Kutenai (Kootenai), but this is not solidly established.

Edward Sapir suggested that the Salishan languages might be related to the Wakashan and Chimakuan languages in a hypothetical Mosan family. This proposal persists primarily through Sapir’s stature: with little evidence for such a family, no progress has been made in reconstructing it.[3]

The Salishan languages, principally Chehalis, contributed greatly to the vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon.

Family features

In popular culture

Stanley Evans has written a series of crime fiction novels that use Salish lore and language.

An episode of Stargate SG-1 ("Spirits", 2x13) features a culture of extraterrestrial humans loosely inspired by Pacific coastal First Nations culture, and who speak a language referred to as "ancient Salish".

References

  1. ^ "First Nations Culture Areas Index". the Canadian Museum of Civilization. http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml. 
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Beck (2000).

Bibliography

External links