Lushootseed | |
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Skagit-Nisqually | |
dxʷləšúcid | |
Native to | Canada, United States |
Region | Southern British Columbia into Northern Washington |
Ethnicity | Duwamish, Snohomish, Suquamish, Sammamish, Snoqualmie, Puyallup, Sahewamish, Skagit, Nisqually |
Native speakers
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no fully fluent native speakers as of 2008 some second-language speakers |
Salishan
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously: lut – Lushootseed slh – Southern Puget Sound Salish ska – Skagit (covered by [lut]) sno – Snohomish (covered by [lut]) |
Glottolog | lush1251 |
Lushootseed (also: xʷəlšucid, dxʷləšúcid, Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish or Skagit-Nisqually) is the language or dialect continuum of several Salish Native American tribes of modern-day Washington state. Lushootseed is a member of Coast Salish, one of two main divisions of the Salishan language family.
Lushootseed has a complex consonantal phonology, with 41 distinct consonant phonemes. Along with more common voicing and labialization contrasts, Lushootseed has a plain-glotallic contrast, which is realized as laryngealized with sonorants, ejective with voiceless stops or fricatives, and implosive for /b/.
Lushootseed, like its neighbour Twana, is in the Southern Coast Salish subgroup of the Salishan family of languages. The language was spoken by many Puget Sound region peoples, including the Duwamish, Steilacoom, Suquamish, Squaxin Island Tribe, Muckleshoot, Snoqualmie, Nisqually, and Puyallup in the south and the Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Skagit, and Swinomish in the north.