Upper Chinook language

Upper Chinook, also known as Kiksht, Columbia Chinook, and Wasco-Wishram after its only living dialect, is a highly endangered language of the US Pacific Northwest. It had 69 speakers as of 1990, of which 7 were monolingual: five Wasco^[1] and two Wishram. It is the last living Chinookan language.

Dialects

• Cascades, (also known as Watlalla or Watlala) now extinct (†).
• Clackamas, now extinct (†); was spoken in northwestern Oregon along the Clackamas and Sandy rivers.
• Hood River, now extinct (†).
• Multnomah (†) Multnomah spoken on Sauvie Island and in the Portland area in northwestern Oregon.
• Wasco-Wishram, still spoken but highly endangered.
• White Salmon, now extinct (†).

Kathlamet has been classified as an additional dialect, it is was not mutually intelligible.

References

1. ^ Culture: Language. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. 2009 (retrieved 9 April 2009)

Bibliography

• Sapir, Edward; Curtin, Jeremiah (1909). Wishram texts, together with Wasco tales and myths. E.J. Brill. ASIN: B000855RIW. http://www.archive.org/details/wishramtexts00sapirich.