Lushootseed language

Lushootseed
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	Southern British Columbia into northern Washington
Native speakers	200  (date missing)
Language family	Salishan Coast Salish Lushootseed
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: lut – Lushootseed slh – Southern Puget Sound Salish ska – Skagit sno – Snohomish

Lushootseed (also xʷəlšucid, dxʷləšúcid, Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish, Skagit-Nisqually) is the language or dialect continuum of several Salish Native American groups of modern-day Washington state. Lushootseed is a member of Coast Salish, one of the two main divisions of the Salishan language group.

Lushootseed, like its neighbour Twana, is in the Southern Coast Salish subgroup of the Salishan family of languages. The language was spoken by many Puget Sound region peoples, including the Duwamish, Steilacoom, Suquamish, Squaxin Island Tribe, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, and Puyallup in the south and the Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Skagit, and Swinomish in the north.

Ethnologue quotes a source published in 1990 (and therefore presumably reflecting the situation in the late 1980s), according to which there were 60 fluent speakers of Lushootseed, evenly divided between the northern and southern dialects. On the other hand, the Ethnologue's list of United States languages also lists, alongside Lushootseed's 60 speakers, 100 speakers for Skagit, 107 for Southern Puget Sound Salish, and 10 for Snohomish (a dialect on the boundary between the northern and southern varieties). Some sources given for these figures, however, go back to the 1970s when the language was less critically endangered. Linguist Marianne Mithun has collected more recent data on the number of speakers of various Native American languages, and could document that there by the end of the 1990s were only a handful of elders left who spoke Lushootseed fluently. The language was extensively documented and studied by linguists with the aid of tribal elder Vi Hilbert, d. 2008, who was the last speaker with a full native command of Lushootseed. There are efforts at reviving the language, and instructional materials have been published.

Language revitalization

As of 2013, the Tulalip Tribes' Lushootseed Language Department teaches classes in Lushootseed, and its website offers a Lushootseed "phrase of the week" with audio. As of 2013, an annual Lushootseed conference is held at Seattle University. A course in Lushootseed language and literature has been offered at Evergreen State College. Lushootseed has also been used as a part of environmental history courses at Pacific Lutheran University.

Subdivisions

Lushootseed consists of two dialect groups which can be further divided into subdialects:

• Northern Lushootseed
  • Snohomish (at Tulalip)
  • Stillaguamish
  • Lower Skagit-Swinomish (on Skagit River and on Whidbey Island)
  • Upper Skagit
  • Sauk-Suiattle (on Sauk River and Suiattle River)
• Southern Lushootseed
  • Skykomish
  • Snoqualmie
  • Steilacoom
  • Suquamish
  • Duwamish
  • bǝqǝlšuɫucid (Muckleshoot Language) (on Green and White rivers)
  • txʷǝlšucid (The Official Language of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians)
  • Nisqually
  • Sahewamish
  • Whulshootseed

The division into Northern and Southern groups is based on vocabulary and stress patterns. The dialects form a cline.

Alphabet

According to work published by Vi Hilbert and other Lushootseed language specialists, Lushootseed uses a morphophonemic writing system meaning that it is a phonemic alphabet with slight changes occurring periodically, such as when an affix is introduced. The chart below is based on the Lushootseed Dictionary. Typographic variations such as p' and p̓ do not indicate phonemic distinctions.

Letter	Letter Name	IPA	Notes
ʔ	Glottal stop	/ʁˀ/
a		/ɑ/
b		/b/
b'	Glottalized b	/ɓ/	Rare sound, does not begin words
c		/t͡s/
cʼ	Glottalized c	/tsˀ/
č	c-wedge	/c͡ç/
čʼ	Glottalized c-wedge	/t͡sʼ/
d		/d/
dᶻ	d-raised-z	/dz/
ə	Schwa	/ə~əʲ/
g		/g/
gʷ	g-raised-w	/gʷ/
h		/hʼ/
i		/ɪ~i/
j	j-wedge	/ɟ͡ʝ/
k		/k/
k'	Glottalized k	/kʼ/
kʷ	k-raised-w	/kʷ/
k'ʷ	Glottalized k-raised-w	/kʼʷ/
l		/l/
ľ	Strictured l	/ľ/
ɫ	Barred-l	/ɬ/
ƛʼ	Glottalized barred-lambda	/tɬʼ/	Voiceless ejective lateral alveolar affricate
m		/m/
m'	Strictured m	/m̥ ̰ /	Laryngealized bilabial nasal
n		/n/
n'	Strictured n	/n̥ ̰/	Laryngealized alveolar nasal
p		/p/
p'	Glottalized p	/pʼ/
q		/q/
q'	Glottalized q	/qʼ/
qʷ	q-raised-w	/qʷ/
qʼʷ	Glottalized q-raised-w	/qʼʷ/
s		/s/
š	s-wedge	/ç~ɕ/
t		/t/
t'	Glottalized t	/tʼ/
u		/ʉ/
w		/w~ʋ/
w'	Strictured w	/w ̰/	Laryngealized high back rounded glide
xʷ	x-w	/xʷ/
x̌	x-wedge	/χ/
x̌ʷ	Rounded x-wedge	/χʷ/
y		/j/
y'	Strictured y	/j ̰/

Some vocabulary

Southern Lushootseed salmonoid vocabulary

sčədadxʷ 

a word that covers all Pacific salmon and some species of trout.

sac̓əb 

Chinook or King

cʼuwad 

sockeye salmon

skʷǝxʷic 

coho salmon

ƛ̕xʷayʼ 

chum salmon

hədu 

the pink salmon

skʷawǝľ 

steelhead

pədkʷəxʷic 

coho season

sc̓ayʼayʼ 

gills

ɫičaʔa 

nets

ɫičaʔalikʷ 

net fishing

ʔalil tiʔiɫ ƛ̕usq̓íl 

spawning season

skʷǝɫt 

tailfin

t̓altəd 

fillet knife

sqʼʷəlus 

kippered dried salmon

səlusqid 

fish heads

qəlx̌ 

dried salmon eggs

ƛ̕ǝbƛ̕əbqʷ 

fresh eggs

sɫuʔb 

dried chum

sxʷudᶻəʔdaliɫəd 

fish with a large amount of body fat

xʷšabus 

lightly smoked

Northern Lushootseed salmonid vocabulary

sʔuladxʷ 

a word that covers all Pacific salmon and some species of trout.

yubəč 

Chinook or King

scəqiʔ 

sockeye salmon

ƛ̕xʷayʔ 

chum salmon

skʷəxʷic 

silver salmon

Northern Lushootseed aquatic vocabulary

qalʼqaləx̌ič 

Blackfish - Killer Whale

čəxʷəluʔ 

Grey Whale

sq̓aƛ̕ 

otter

sup̓qs

seal

sťəqxʷ 

beaver

sqibk̕ʷ 

octopus

ʔaləšək 

Western pond turtle

waq̓waq̓ 

frog

sk̕ʷic̕i 

sea urchin

təǰabac 

sea cucumber

q̓ʷəlačiʔ 

star fish

bəsqʷ 

crab

ťaɫiɡʷs 

Rock Cod

p̓uay̓ 

flounder

kəlapx̌ʷəlč 

jelly fish

sʔax̌ʷuʔ 

clam

tulqʷ 

mussel

ƛ̕ux̌ʷƛ̕ux̌ʷ 

oyster

c̕ubc̕ub 

barnacle

sx̌aʔaʔ 

little neck steam clams

xʷč́iɫqs 

large native oyster

ɡʷidəq 

geoduck

stxʷub 

butter clam

sx̌əpab 

cockle clam

haʔəc 

horse clam

č́ič́əlpyaqid / puʔps 

periwinkle

sč́awyʔ 

any seashell

ʔuk̕ʷs 

large chiton

x̌ald 

small chiton

References

• Bates, D., Hess, T., & Hilbert, V. (1994). Lushootseed dictionary. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN: 9780295973234

External links

• Puyallup Tribal Language Program
• The Tulalip Lushootseed Department's Website
• History professor helps keep local Native American language alive by Drew Brown for PLU Scene Magazine
• Lushootseed Peoples of Puget Sound Country
• Ethnologue report
• Lushootseed Research
• Puget Salish
• Dr. David Beck, Salishan Language specialist
• Developing a corpus for Lushootseed