Molala language

Molala (Molele, Molalla) is the extinct and poorly attested Plateau Penutian language of the Molala people of Oregon and Washington. It is first attested along the Deschutes River, and later moved to the Molalla and Santiam rivers, and to the headwaters of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. It was once thought to be close to Cayuse.

Molala
Molale
Native toUnited States
RegionCentral Oregon and Washington
EthnicityMolala
Extinct1958[1]
with the death of Fred Yelkes (1885–1958)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mbe
Glottologmola1238

Dialects

There were three known dialects:

  • Northern Molala, spoken in southern Oregon in the Cascade Range
  • Upper Santiam Molala, spoken along the upper Santiam River in the Cascades in central Oregon.
  • Southern Molala, spoken in southern Oregon in the Cascade Range

Phonology

The phonology of the Molala language:

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Lateral Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive plain p t k q ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ
Nasal m n ŋ
Affricate plain ts tɬ
ejective tsʼ
Fricative ɸ s ɬ x h
Approximant w l j

Vowels
Short Long
Close i iː
Open a~e aː
Back u uː

/i/ and /a/ can also shift to /ə/.[3]

Grammar

Molala is a verb-heavy polysynthetic language.

Case

Molala nouns have seven cases:

  1. nominative
  2. accusative
  3. genitive
  4. instrumental
  5. locative
  6. allative
  7. ablative

References
  1. Molala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tryon, Darrell T. (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and ... - Google Books. ISBN 9783110134179. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  3. Berman, Howard (1996). International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 62, No. 1. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 3–5.
Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Molala word list
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