Quileute language

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Quileute
Kʷòʔlíyotʼ
Native to Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Extinct 1999[1]
Chimakuan
  • Quileute
Dialects
Hoh
Language codes
ISO 639-3 qui

Quileute /ˈkwɪlɨjuːt/,[2] also known as Quillayute /kwɨˈleɪjuːt/, was the last Chimakuan language, spoken until the end of the 20th century by Quileute and Makah elders on the western coast of the Olympic peninsula south of Cape Flattery at La Push and the lower Hoh River in Washington State, USA. The name Quileute comes from kʷoʔlí·yot’ [kʷoʔléːjotʼ], the name of a village at La Push.

Quileute is famous for its lack of nasal sounds, such as [m], [n], or nasal vowels, an areal feature of Puget Sound.[3] Quileute is polysynthetic and words can be quite long.

Use and revitalization efforts

There were ten elderly speakers in 1977, and "a few" in 1999.[4] The Quileute Nation is attempting to prevent the loss of the language by teaching it in the Quileute Tribal School, using books written for the students by the tribal elders.

"[In 2007], the Tribal Council set up a two-year Quileute Revitilization Project with the goal of encouraging the use of Quileute words and phrases in everyday village life. A basic vocabulary of greetings, questions, numbers, names of things, and "one-liners" in Quileute were made available to tribal members and staff through informal classes, email and computer CDs."[5]

Phonology

Quileute has three vowels, /e/, /a/, /o/ long and short (pronounced [i], [ə], [o] when short and in non-tonic syllables), as well as /æː/ which only occurs long. Stress is historically penultimate, though this has become somewhat obscured and is no longer predictable. It has the following consonants (t͡ɬ and ɡ are rare):

  Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
  central lateral   plain labialized plain labialized  
Plosive voiceless p t     k kʷ q qʷ ʔ
voiced b d     (ɡ)        
ejective pʼ tʼ     kʼ kʼʷ qʼ qʼʷ  
Affricate voiceless   t͡s (t͡ɬ) t͡ʃ          
ejective   t͡sʼ t͡ɬʼ t͡ʃʼ          
Fricative     s ɬ ʃ x xʷ χ χʷ h
Approximant       l j   w      

Morphology

Quileute features an interesting prefix system that changes depending on the physical characteristics of the person being spoken to. When speaking to a cross-eyed person, /ta/ is prefixed to each word. When speaking to a hunchback, the prefix /t͜ʃʼ/ is used. Additional prefixes are also used for short men (/s/), "funny people" (/t͜ɬ/), and people that have difficulty walking (/t͜ʃχ/).[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Quileute reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. ↑ Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-521-29875-9. 
  4. ↑ Mithun, The Languages of Native North America
  5. ↑ "Quileute Nation - Language". Retrieved 2012-12-02. 
  6. ↑ Mithun (1999). Special Handicapped-directed speech varieties in the American north-west. p. 275. Cited in Parkvall, Mikael. Limits of Language. 1st Ed. Wilsonville, Oregon: William, James & Co., 2008. 2. Print.

External links

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