Salishan Languages
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). They are characterised by agglutinativity and astonishing consonant clusters — for instance the Nuxálk word xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ meaning ‘he had had a bunchberry plant’ has thirteen obstruent consonants in a row with no vowels. The Salishan languages are a geographically continuous block, with the exception of Bella Coola, on the north British Columbian coast, and Tillamook, to the south on the coast of Oregon.
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. Few Salish languages currently have more than one to two thousand speakers. 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.
Read more about Salishan Languages: Family Division, Genetic Relations, Family Features, Syntax, Historical Linguistics, Pragmatics, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)