Quileute language
Extinct Chimakuan language in Washington state, US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quileute (/ˈkwɪlɪjuːt/;[2][page needed] kʷòʔlí·yot̓ísk̓ʷa)[3] is the language of the Quileute people, located on the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The language went extinct in 1999, though today there are several second-language speakers and the Quileute Nation is working to revitalize the language in daily life. Quileute is one of two Chimakuan languages, and was the last Chimakuan language spoken natively.
| Quileute | |
|---|---|
| kʷòʔlí·yot̓ísk̓ʷa | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Olympic Peninsula, Washington |
| Ethnicity | 500 Quileute (2007)[1] |
| Extinct | 1999[1] |
Chimakuan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | qui |
| Glottolog | quil1240 |
| ELP | Quileute |
| People | kʷòʔlí·yot̓ |
|---|---|
| Language | kʷòʔlí·yot̓ísk̓ʷa |
| Country | kʷòʔlí·yot̓ilo t̕siḳ̓áti |
Quileute is famous for its lack of nasal sounds, such as [m], [n], or nasal vowels, an areal feature of Puget Sound.[4] Quileute is polysynthetic and words can be quite long.
The name Quileute comes from kʷòʔlí·yot̓, the name of a village at La Push.
Use and revitalization efforts
There were ten elderly speakers in 1977, and "a few" in 1999.[5][page needed]
The Quileute Nation is attempting to prevent the loss of the language by teaching it in the Quileute Tribal School using books written for the students by the tribal elders.
"[In 2007], the Tribal Council set up a two-year Quileute Revitalization Project with the goal of encouraging the use of Quileute words and phrases in everyday village life. A basic vocabulary of greetings, questions, numbers, names of things, and ‘one-liners’ in Quileute were made available to tribal members and staff through informal classes, email and computer CDs."[6]
Phonology
Quileute has three phonemic short vowels /ä, e, o/ (written ‹a, i, o›) and four long vowels /äː, æː, eː, oː/ (written ‹a·, a̱·, i·, o·›). The vowels exhibit quite a bit of allophonic variation. /ä/ accepts allophones ranging between a low of [ä] to a mid [ə]; /e/ between [ɛ] and [ɪ] (rarely as high as [i]); and /o/ between [o] and [ʊ] (rarely [u]). The long vowels are somewhat more stable: /äː, æː, eː, oː/ are realized mostly as [äː, æː, eː, oː].[7][page needed][8]
Stress is usually penultimate, but not necessarily so. It was originally described by Manuel Andrade as having had a phonemic pitch accent whereby each long vowel can host one of four pitch contours.[9] However, later research by Jay Powell has shown that Andrade had overdistinguished and that Quileute has a simpler accentual system whereby primary stress (accompanied by a higher pitch as in English) usually falls on the penultimate syllable and some words also harbor secondary stress on a different syllable.[10]
Quileute is notable as having no nasal consonants, a feature shared with a few unrelated languages in its immediate vicinity, namely, Makah, Nitinaht, Lushootseed, and Twana. It has the following consonants (/t͡ɬ/ and /ɡ/ are rare):
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lateral | plain | labialized | plain | labialized | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ | kʷ ⟨kʷ⟩ | q ⟨ḳ⟩ | qʷ ⟨ḳʷ⟩ | |||
| ejective | pʼ ⟨p̓⟩ | tʼ ⟨t̓⟩ | kʼ ⟨k̓⟩ | kʷʼ ⟨k̓ʷ⟩ | qʼ ⟨ḳ̓⟩ | qʷʼ ⟨ḳ̓ʷ⟩ | ʔ ⟨ʔ⟩ | |||
| voiced | b ⟨b⟩ | d ⟨d⟩ | ɡ ⟨g⟩ | |||||||
| Affricate | plain | t͡s ⟨ts⟩ | t͡ɬ ⟨tƚ⟩ | t͡ʃ ⟨ch⟩ | ||||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ ⟨t̓s⟩ | t͡ɬʼ ⟨t̓ƚ⟩ | t͡ʃʼ ⟨c̓h⟩ | |||||||
| Fricative | s ⟨s⟩ | ɬ ⟨ƚ⟩ | ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | x ⟨x⟩ | xʷ ⟨xʷ⟩ | χ ⟨x̣⟩ | χʷ ⟨x̣ʷ⟩ | h ⟨h⟩ | ||
| Approximant | l ⟨l⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | w ⟨w⟩ | |||||||
The plain voiceless stops and affricates are slightly aspirated. After an accented long vowel in the first syllable, they are preceded by anticipatory pre-aspiration. So, e.g., ‹dí·ḳa› ‘smoke’ is realized as [ˈdéˑʰqʰə], and ‹t̓ƚó·pa› ‘blue, green’ is realized as [ˈt͡ɬʼóˑʰpʰə]. Analogously, an ejective following an accented long vowel anticipates pre-glottalization, so ‹ʔá·c̓hit› ‘rich, chief’ is realized as [ˈʔä́ˑˀt͡ʃʼɪt(ʰ)] or even [ˈʔä́ˑʔᵊt͡ʃʼɪt(ʰ)]. In the same position, continuants (including /b/ and /d/ which descend from Proto-Chimakuan *m and *n) are lengthened. E.g., ‹bí·baʔa·› ‘blind’ is realized as [ˈbɪ́ˑbːäʔäː] and ‹ʔí·ƚiƚ› ‘key’ as [ˈʔɪ́ˑɬːɪɬ].[7][page needed]
Orthography
Quileute uses an alphabet developed in 1969 by the Quileute Culture Committee. The accents ◌́ and ◌̀ are used to mark stress, and a dot (·) is used to mark a long vowel.[11]
Morphology
Quileute features a prefix system that changes depending on the physical characteristics of the person being spoken of, the speaker, or rarely the person being addressed.[12] When speaking of a cross-eyed person, /t͡ɬ-/ is prefixed to each word. When speaking of a hunchback, the prefix /t͡sʼ-/ is used. Additional prefixes are also used for short men (/s-/), "funny people" (/t͡ʃk-/), and people that have difficulty walking (/t͡ʃχ-/).[13][12]