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(Top) 1 Cowlitz people 2 Phonology 3 Vocabulary 4 References 5 Further reading 6 See also

Cowlitz language

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Cowlitz
ƛʼpúlmixq
Native to	United States
Region	Southwestern Washington
Extinct	1960s
Revival	revival efforts underway
Language family	Salishan Coast Tsamosan Inland Cowlitz
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`cow`
Glottolog	`cowl1242`

Cowlitz (Cowlitz: ƛʼpúlmixq),^[2] also known as Cowlitz Salish,^[3] 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. Although it went dormant in the 1960s, it is being revitalized by the Cowlitz Tribe.^[3]

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.^[4]

Phonology[edit]

Consonants^[5]
		Bilabial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		Bilabial	central	sibilant	lateral	Palatal	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t	ts		tʃ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
Plosive/ Affricate	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ	tɬʼ	tʃʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ	ʔ
Fricative				s	ɬ	ʃ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m	n		l	j		w
Sonorant	glottalized	mˀ	nˀ		lˀ	jˀ		wˀ

Vowels^[5]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e eː	ə	oː
Open		a aː

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 tribe	Sł'púlmš
one (number)	utsus
two	salli
three	kałi
four	mus
five	tsilats
to sing	ilani
moon/sun	Łuqał
dog	kaxa
water	kal'l
man	siłimx
woman	kuwił

References[edit]

^ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.

^ "Cowlitz Coast Salish Dictionary". Cowlitz Salish Dictionary. Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.

^ ^a ^b "Cowlitz Salish Language Learning". Cowlitz Salish. The Language Conservancy. Retrieved November 8, 2023.

^ "Our Story". The Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.

^ ^a ^b Kinkade, Marvin Dale (2004). Cowlitz dictionary and grammatical sketch. Missoula, MT: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana. pp. 219–224.