Chetco language
| Tolowa | |
|---|---|
| Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ Wee-ya’ | |
| Pronunciation | /tʰaːlaːwa teːniʔ weːjaʔ/ |
| Native to | USA |
| Region | southwest Oregon |
| Ethnicity | one hundred Chetco (1977); one thousand Tolowa (2000) |
| Extinct | 1 elderly semispeaker in 2001 |
| Revival | growing number with limited competence |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: |
| Glottolog | tolo1259 |
The Tolowa language (also called Chetco-Tolowa, or Siletz Dee-ni) is a member of the Pacific Coast subgroup of the Athabaskan language family. Together with three other closely related languages (Lower Rogue River Athabaskan, Upper Rogue River Athabaskan or Galice-Applegate and Upper Umpqua or Etnemitane) it forms a distinctive Oregon Athabaskan cluster within the subgroup.
At the time of first European contact Tolowa was spoken in several large and prosperous village communities along the Del Norte County coast in the far northwestern corner of California and along the southern coast of adjacent Curry County, Oregon. Today the term Tolowa (or sometimes Smith River) is used primarily by those residing in California, most of whom are affiliated with Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation. Those residing in Oregon, most of whom are affiliated with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz southwest of Portland, where their ancestors were removed in the 1850s (Beckham 1971), refer to themselves as Chetco, Tututni, or Deeni.
For details of the linguistic documentation of Chetco-Tolowa and a survey of Oregon Athabaskan phonology and grammar, see Golla (2011:70-75).
As with many Athabaskan languages, Tolowa features contrasting aspirated, unaspirated, and ejective stops, as well as contrasting vowel length and nasality. Tolowa is not fully tonal, but instead has a pitch accent. This is typical of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages.
/ɬ/ is affricated to /tɬ/ after vowels. /j/ is nasalized (/j̃/) after nasal vowels.
Tolowa vowels have some degree of allophonicity. /u/ and /o/ are in free variation; /ɔ/ is an allophone of /a/ after palatals and velars; /ə/ is raised to /ɨ/ near palatals and to /ʉ/ before velars, and is nasalized (/ə̃/) before nasal consonants. In addition, Tolowa has three diphthongs: [ai], [au], and [ui].
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