Cowlitz language
| Cowlitz | |
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Southwestern Washington |
Native speakers | extinct (ethnic population: 200)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cow |
The Cowlitz language is a member of the Tsamosan (Olympic) branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages.
The Cowltiz tribe
The 'Cowlitz tribe' was originally two distinct tribes: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz. Only the Lower Cowlitz spoke Cowlitz; the Upper Cowlitz, a Sahaptin tribe, spoke a dialect of Yakama.
Vocabulary
Cowlitz is most similar to Lower Chehalis, another Tsamosan language, although it does contains some oddities, such as the word for one, utsus (in contrast to the Lower Chehalis paw).
| English | Cowlitz |
|---|---|
| Lower Cowlitz tribe | Sł'púlmš |
| one (number) | utsus |
| two | salli |
| three | kałi |
| four | mus |
References
- Native-Languages.org.
- Kinkade, Dale. Cowlitz Dictionary And Grammatical Sketch. Missoula: University of Montana Press, 2004.
See also
 | This article related to the Indigenous languages of the Americas is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |