Jump to content

Molala language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Monkbot (talk | contribs) at 12:38, 19 January 2021 (Task 18 (cosmetic): eval 2 templates: hyphenate params (1×);). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Molala
Molale
Native toUnited States
RegionCentral Oregon and Washington
EthnicityMolala people
Extinct1958[1]
with the death of Fred Yelkes (1885–1958)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mbe
Glottologmola1238

Molala (Molele, Molalla) is the extinct and poorly attested Plateau Penutian language of the Molala people of Oregon and Washington. It is first attested along the Deschutes River, and later moved to the Molalla and Santiam rivers, and to the headwaters of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. It was once thought to be close to Cayuse.

Dialects

There were three known dialects:

  • Northern Molala, spoken in southern Oregon in the Cascade Range
  • Upper Santiam Molala, spoken along the upper Santiam River in the Cascades in central Oregon.
  • Southern Molala, spoken in southern Oregon in the Cascade Range

Phonology

The phonology of the Molala language:

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Lateral Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive plain p t k q ʔ
aspirated
ejective
Nasal m n ŋ
Affricate plain ts
ejective tsʼ
Fricative ɸ s ɬ x h
Approximant w l j

Vowels

Short Long
Close i
Open a~e
Back u

/i/ and /a/ can also shift to /ə/.[3]

Grammar

Molala is a verb-heavy polysynthetic language.

Case

Molala nouns have seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, locative, allative, and ablative.

References

  1. ^ Molala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ "Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and ... - Google Books". google.co.in. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  3. ^ Berman, Howard (1996). International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 62, No. 1. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 3–5.

External links