| Cowlitz | |
|---|---|
| ƛʼpúlmixq | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Southwestern Washington |
| Ethnicity | Lower Cowlitz people |
| Extinct | 1960s |
| Revival | revival efforts underway |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cow |
| Glottolog | cowl1242 |
Cowlitz (Cowlitz: ƛʼpúlmixq),[1] also known as Cowlitz Salish,[2] is a Tsamosan language of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages. It was spoken by the Lower Cowlitz people of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and is spoken today by both Lower and Upper Cowlitz people. Although it went dormant in the 1960s, it is being revitalized by the Cowlitz Tribe.[2]
Dialects
Cowlitz had two dialects, with a dialectal opposition between [k] and [x] and [t͡ʃ] and [ʃ]. However, these dialects were poorly documented, due to the extinction of the language.[3]
Cowlitz people
The Cowlitz people were originally two distinct tribes: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz, sometimes called the Taidnapam. Only the Lower Cowlitz originally spoke Cowlitz Salish. The Upper Cowlitz spoke a Sahaptin language.[4]
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | sibilant | lateral | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p | t | ts | tʃ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | |
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | ||
| Fricative | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | |||
| Sonorant | plain | m | n | l | j | w | |||||
| glottalized | mˀ | nˀ | lˀ | jˀ | wˀ | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e eː | ə | oː |
| Open | a aː |
Orthography
| ʔ | a | b | c | cʼ | č | čʼ | d | e | ə | f | g | h | i | j | k | kʷ | kʼ | kʷʼ | l | lʼ | ɬ | ƛʼ | m | mʼ | n |
| nʼ | o | o | p | pʼ | q | qʷ | qʼ | qʷʼ | r | s | š | t | tʼ | u | v | w | wʼ | x | xʷ | x̣ | x̣ʷ | y | yʼ | z |
Vocabulary
Cowlitz is most similar to Lower Chehalis, another Tsamosan language, although it contains some oddities, such as the word for one, utsus (in contrast to the Lower Chehalis paw).
| English | Cowlitz |
|---|---|
| Lower Cowlitz people | sƛʼpúlmx |
| one (number) | ʔúcʼs |
| two | sáliʔ |
| three | káʔɬiʔ |
| four | mús |
| five | čílačš |
| to sing | sʔílnʼ |
| moon/sun | ɬukʷáɬ |
| dog | qáx̣aʔ |
| water | qálʔ |
| man | síɬmx |
| woman | kə́wɬ |
References
- 1 2 "Cowlitz Coast Salish Dictionary". Cowlitz Salish Dictionary. Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- 1 2 "Cowlitz Salish Language Learning". Cowlitz Salish. The Language Conservancy. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ↑ Kinkade, M. Dale (October 1973). "The Alveopalatal Shift in Cowlitz Salish". International Journal of American Linguistics. 39 (4): 224–231. doi:10.1086/465270. ISSN 0020-7071.
- ↑ "Our Story". The Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- 1 2 Kinkade, Marvin Dale (2004). Cowlitz dictionary and grammatical sketch. Missoula, MT: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana. pp. 219–224.
Further reading
- "Vocabulary Words in the Salishan Language Family". Native-Languages.org.
- Kinkade, Dale (2004). Cowlitz Dictionary and Grammatical Sketch. Missoula: University of Montana Press. ISBN 9781879763180.
See also
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