Chimakuan languages
| Chimakuan | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution |
Olympic Peninsula, Washington |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | chim1311 |
Pre-contact distribution of Chimakuan languages
|
|
The Chimakuan language family consists of one extinct and one severely endangered language spoken in northwestern Washington state, United States, on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Mosan sprachbund, and one of its languages is famous for having no nasal consonants. The two languages were about as close as English and German.
Chemakum is now extinct. It was spoken until the 1940s on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula between Port Townsend and Hood Canal. The name Chemakum is an Anglicized version of a Salishan word for the Chimakum people, such as the nearby Twana word čə́bqəb [t͡ʃə́bqəb] (earlier [t͡ʃə́mqəm]).
Quileute is now severely endangered. It is spoken by a few people south of the Makah on the western coast of the Olympic peninsula south of Cape Flattery at La Push and the lower Hoh River. The name Quileute comes from kʷoʔlí·yot’ [kʷoʔlíːjotʼ], the name of a village at La Push.
The Chimakuan languages have phonemic inventories similar to other languages of the Mosan sprachbund, with three vowels, ejective consonants, uvular consonants, and lateral affricates. However, both languages have typological oddities: Chemakum had no simple velar consonants, and Quileute has no nasal consonants.
...
Wikipedia