Chinookan languages
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| Chinook
Tsinúk
|
|
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Columbia River Valley |
| Genetic classification: |
Chinook |
| Subdivisions: |
—
|
 Pre-contact distribution of Chinookan languages |
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Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.
Contents |
[edit] Family division
Chinookan consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: chh (Chinook, Lower Chinook) and wac (Wasco-Wishram, Upper Chinook). For example, Ethnologue 15e classifies Kiksht as Lower Chinook, while others consider it instead Upper Chinook (discussion), as used in this article.
- Kathlamet (also known as Katlamat, Cathlamet), now extinct (†).
- Kathlamet was spoken in northwestern Oregon along the south bank of the lower Columbia River.
- Kathlamet has been classified as a dialect of Upper Chinook (or Middle Chinook), but they are not mutually intelligible.
- Lower Chinook (also known as Coastal Chinook) (chh), now extinct (†).
- Clatsop was spoken in northwestern Oregon around the mouth of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains (†).
- Shoalwater (also known as Chinook proper), now extinct (†). Shoalwater was spoken in southwestern Washington around southern Willapa Bay.
- Upper Chinook (also known as Kiksht, Columbia Chinook) (wac)
- Cascades, 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 language (wac), still spoken by the Wasco-Wishram people, but highly endangered.
- Wasco has five speakers left.[1]
- Wishram has two speakers.
- White Salmon, now extinct (†).
Watlala was spoken in north-central Oregon along the Columbia River Gorge.
[edit] See also
Chinook Jargon -- a pidgin based on Chinookan and with many words loaned from other languages, which was used in trade along the Pacific Northwest coast and adjoining areas inland.
[edit] Bibliography
- Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
[edit] Further reading
- Gibbs, George (1863). Alphabetical vocabulary of the Chinook language. Cramoisy Press. http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/publications%5Fdetail.aspx?p=65.
[edit] References
- ^ Culture: Language. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. 2009 (retrieved 9 April 2009)
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