Cowlitz language
| Cowlitz | |
|---|---|
| ƛʼpúlmixq | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Southwestern Washington |
| Ethnicity | Lower Cowlitz people |
| Extinct | October 23, 1992, with the death of Emma Northover Mesplie; dormant by 1960s |
| Revival | revival efforts underway |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cow |
| Glottolog | cowl1242 |
Cowlitz (Cowlitz: ƛʼpúlmixq),[1] also known as Cowlitz Salish,[2] is a Tsamosan language of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages. It was spoken by the Lower Cowlitz people of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and is spoken today by both Lower and Upper Cowlitz people. It went dormant in the 1960s. As of 2022, it is being revitalized by the Cowlitz Tribe in collaboration with the Language Conservancy.[3][2]
Dialects
[edit]Cowlitz had two dialects, with a dialectal opposition between [k] and [x] and [t͡ʃ] and [ʃ]. However, these dialects were poorly documented, due to the extinction of the language.[4]
Cowlitz people
[edit]The Cowlitz people were originally two distinct tribes: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz, sometimes called the Taidnapam. Only the Lower Cowlitz originally spoke Cowlitz Salish. The Upper Cowlitz spoke a Sahaptin language.[5]
Phonology
[edit]| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| median | sibilant | lateral | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p | t | ts | tʃ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | |
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | ||
| Fricative | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | |||
| Sonorant | plain | m | n | l | j | w | |||||
| glottalized | mˀ | nˀ | lˀ | jˀ | wˀ | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e eː | ə | oː |
| Open | a aː |
Orthography
[edit]| ʔ | a | b | c | cʼ | č | čʼ | d | e | ə | f | g | h | i | j | k | kʷ | kʼ | kʷʼ | l | lʼ | ɬ | ƛʼ | m | mʼ | n |
| nʼ | o | o | p | pʼ | q | qʷ | qʼ | qʷʼ | r | s | š | t | tʼ | u | v | w | wʼ | x | xʷ | x̣ | x̣ʷ | y | yʼ | z |
Vocabulary
[edit]Cowlitz is most similar to Lower Chehalis, another Tsamosan language, although it contains some oddities, such as the word for one, utsus (in contrast to the Lower Chehalis paw).
| English | Cowlitz |
|---|---|
| Lower Cowlitz people | sƛʼpúlmx |
| one (number) | ʔúcʼs |
| two | sáliʔ |
| three | káʔɬiʔ |
| four | mús |
| five | čílačš |
| to sing | sʔílnʼ |
| moon/sun | ɬukʷáɬ |
| dog | qáx̣aʔ |
| water | qálʔ |
| man | síɬmx |
| woman | kə́wɬ |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 "Cowlitz Coast Salish Dictionary". Cowlitz Salish Dictionary. Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- 1 2 "Cowlitz Salish Language Learning". Cowlitz Salish. The Language Conservancy. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- ↑ Kauffman, Brennen (February 27, 2022). "Cowlitz Language Being Brought Back With Online Dictionary, Weekend Classes". The Chronicle. Archived from the original on January 24, 2025. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
- ↑ Kinkade, M. Dale (October 1973). "The Alveopalatal Shift in Cowlitz Salish". International Journal of American Linguistics. 39 (4): 224–231. doi:10.1086/465270. ISSN 0020-7071.
- ↑ "Our Story". The Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
- 1 2 Kinkade, Marvin Dale (2004). Cowlitz dictionary and grammatical sketch. Missoula, MT: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana. pp. 219–224.
Further reading
[edit]- "Vocabulary Words in the Salishan Language Family". Native-Languages.org.
- Kinkade, Dale (2004). Cowlitz Dictionary and Grammatical Sketch. Missoula: University of Montana Press. ISBN 9781879763180.
