Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Cowlitz language
Salishan language of Southwestern Washington From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
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]
Remove ads
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
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).
Remove ads
References
Further reading
See also
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads