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Tillamook language

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Tillamook
Hutyáyu, Hutyéyu
Native toUnited States
RegionNorthwestern Oregon
EthnicityTillamook, Siletz
Extinct1972, with the death of Minnie Scovell[1]
Dialects
  • Tillamook
  • Siletz
Language codes
ISO 639-3til
Glottologtill1254
Tillamook is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
[2]
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Tillamook is an extinct Salishan language, formerly spoken by the Tillamook people in northwestern Oregon, United States. The last fluent speaker was Minnie Scovell who died in 1972.[1] In an effort to prevent the language from being lost, a group of researchers from the University of Hawaii interviewed the few remaining Tillamook-speakers and created a 120-page dictionary.[3]

Phonology

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Vowels

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Vowels in Tillamook
Front Back
High i ə
Low æ ɑ

Consonants

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Consonants in Tillamook
Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Velar Uvular Glottal
central sibilant lateral unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
Stop plain t t͡s t͡ʃ k kᵓ q qᵓ ʔ
ejective t͡sʼ t͡ɬʼ t͡ʃʼ kᵓʼ qᵓʼ
Fricative s ɬ ʃ x xᵓ χ χᵓ h
Sonorant n l j ɰᵓ

Internal rounding

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The so-called "rounded" consonants (traditionally marked with the diacritic ⟨ʷ⟩, but here indicated with ⟨⟩), including rounded vowels and ⟨w⟩ (/ɰᵓ/), are not actually labialized. The acoustic effect of labialization is created entirely inside the mouth by cupping the tongue (sulcalization). Uvulars with this distinctive internal rounding have "a kind of ɔ timbre" while "rounded" front velars have ɯ coloring. These contrast and oppose otherwise very similar segments having ɛ or ɪ coloring—the "unrounded" consonants.

/w/ is also formed with this internal rounding instead of true labialization, making it akin to [ɰ]. So are vowel sounds formerly written as /o/ or /u/, which are best characterized as the diphthong /əɰ/ with increasing internal rounding.[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b "A language all but lost". Tilamook Headlight Herald. May 19, 2009. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
  2. ^ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.
  3. ^ "Speaking Tillamook". Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011.
  4. ^ Thompson & Thompson 1966, p. 316.

Bibliography

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