Cowlitz language

The Cowlitz language is a member of the Tsamosan branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages.

Cowlitz
Native toUnited States
RegionSouthwestern Washington
Ethnicity200 Cowlitz people (1990)[1]
Extinct1960s[1]
Salishan
  • Coast
    • Tsamosan
      • Inland
        • Cowlitz
Language codes
ISO 639-3cow
Glottologcowl1242

Cowlitz people

The Cowlitz people were originally two distinct tribes: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz. Only the Lower Cowlitz spoke Cowlitz; the Upper Cowlitz, a Sahaptin tribe, spoke a dialect of Yakama.

Phonology
Consonants[2]
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
centralsibilantlateral plainlab. plainlab.
Plosive/
Affricate		 plain p t ts tʃ k kʷ q qʷ ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ kʼ kʷʼ qʼ qʷʼ
Fricative s ɬ ʃ x xʷ χ χʷ h
Sonorant plain m n l j w
glottalized mˀ nˀ lˀ jˀ wˀ
Vowels[2]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e eː ə oː
Open a aː

Vocabulary

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 tribeSł'púlmš
one (number)utsus
twosalli
threekałi
fourmus
fivetsilats
to singilani
moon/sunŁuqał
dogkaxa
waterkal'l
mansiłimx
womankuwił

References
  1. Cowlitz at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Kinkade, Marvin Dale (2004). Cowlitz dictionary and grammatical sketch. Missoula, MT: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana. pp. 219–224.

See also


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