Other Languages of the Northwest Coast
Quileute LanguageQuileute Indian Language: Quileute is a language isolate (a language unrelated to any other known living language). A second dialect of the same language was once spoken by the Hoh people, but today no one speaks the Hoh dialect. The Quileute language is spoken only by a handful of elders today, but some young people are working to keep their ancestral language alive (Lewis, Redish – Native Languages.org).
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WakashanWakashan is spoken by the Bella Bella, Kwakiutl, Makah, and Nootka peoples. The Nootka language is a southern Wakashan language spoken in the south-western section of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The Nootka orthography follows the Americanist linguistics tradition, with the goal of “one letter, one sound” which can lead to some rather complicated letters (See this Nootka language page for phonetic analysis and a list of consonants and vowels in Nootka orthography). The Canadian Census counts 510 Nootka speakers in 2006, up from 505 in 2001 (Languagegeek.com).
Na-DeneThe name Na-Dene was created by combining the word na, which means "people" in Tlingit and "home" in Haida, with the word dene, which means "people" in several Athabascan languages. Tlingit, one of the Na-Dene speaker tribes are the most northerly of the Northwest Coast peoples, the Tlingit occupied the coast form Yakutat Bay in Alaska south to Cape Fox in BC. They were divided into fourteen subtribes, the best known being the Chilkat (Garbarino, Sasso 166). There are about 700 native speakers of Tlingit today, mostly elders, although some younger Tlingit people are working to keep their ancestral language alive (Lewis, Redish – Native Languages.org).
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Page Sources:
Garbarino, Merwyn S., and Robert F. Sasso. Native American Heritage. Third ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 1976. Print.
Lewis, Orrin, and Laura Redish. Native American Language Net: Preserving and Promoting Indigenous American Indian Languages. Native Languages of the Americas, 1998-2015. Web.
http://www.languagegeek.com/wakashan/nuuchahnulth.html
Photos:
Tlingit Dancers: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/1718/rec/59
Nootka chief: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/1968/rec/8
Quileute man: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/1603/rec/11
Tlingit dancers in costume: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/121/rec/17
Garbarino, Merwyn S., and Robert F. Sasso. Native American Heritage. Third ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 1976. Print.
Lewis, Orrin, and Laura Redish. Native American Language Net: Preserving and Promoting Indigenous American Indian Languages. Native Languages of the Americas, 1998-2015. Web.
http://www.languagegeek.com/wakashan/nuuchahnulth.html
Photos:
Tlingit Dancers: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/1718/rec/59
Nootka chief: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/1968/rec/8
Quileute man: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/1603/rec/11
Tlingit dancers in costume: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/loc/id/121/rec/17