Nooksack language

Nooksack
Lhéchalosem
Region	Whatcom County
Extinct	1988
Language family	Salish Coast Salish Nooksack
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nok

The Nooksack language (Lhéchalosem) is a Coast Salish language spoken by the Nooksack Indians of northwestern Washington State in the United States, centered in Whatcom County.

The Nooksack language belonged to the Coast Salishan family of languages but became extinct around 1988. In the 1970s, the Salishan linguist Brent Galloway worked closely with the last remaining fluent speaker and is currently completing a dictionary of the language. George Adams, a Nooksack tribal member, is also working on the language.

Nooksack is most closely related to Squamish, Sháshíshálhem (Sechelt) and Halkomelem, which are all spoken in nearby parts of British Columbia, Canada.

Phonology

Vowels

The following table includes all the vowel sounds found in the Nooksack language.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i
Mid		ɵ, ə	o
Open		æ

Consonants

The following table includes all the consonant sounds found in the Nooksack language.

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			central	lateral			plain	rounded	plain	rounded
Stop	plain	p	t				k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ					kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ
Affricate	plain		t͡s		t͡ʃ
	ejective		t͡sʼ	t͡ɬʼ	t͡ʃʼ
Fricative	plain		s	ɬ	ʃ		x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
	ejective			ɬʼ
Nasal		m	n
Approximant	plain			l		j		w
	glottalized					jʼ

Orthography

(di)graph	sound	(di)graph	sound
a	æ	qw	qʷ
ch	tʃ	qw’	qʷʼ
ch’	tʃʼ	s	s
e	ə	sh	ʃ
h	h	t	t
i	i	t’	tʼ
k	k	ts	t͡s
kw	kʷ	ts’	t͡sʼ
kw’	kʷʼ	tl’	t͡ɬʼ
l	l	u	ɵ
lh	ɬ	w	w
lh’	ɬʼ	x	x
m	m	xw	xʷ
n	n	x̱	χ
o	o	x̱w	χʷ
p	p	y	j
p’	pʼ	y’	jʼ
q	q	ʔ	ʔ
q’	qʼ

In addition, the symbol "ː" is used to indicated elongated vowels and consonants (e.g., mː, aː). An acute accent (´) is placed over the accented syllable.

References

• Nooksack Tribe page