Lower Chehalis language explained

Lower Chehalis
Nativename:Łəw̓ál̕məš
States:United States
Region:south of Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Ethnicity:Chehalis people
Extinct:1990s
Ref:e25
Familycolor:American
Fam1:Salishan
Fam2:Coast
Fam3:Tsamosan
Fam4:Maritime
Iso3:cea
Glotto:lowe1427
Glottorefname:Lower Chehalis
Map:Lang Status 01-EX.svg
Mapcaption:[1]

Lower Chehalis (Łəw̓ál̕məš) is a member of the Tsamosan (or Olympic Peninsula) branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages. In some classifications, Lower Chehalis is placed closer to Quinault than it is to Upper Chehalis.

Phonology

! rowspan="2"
BilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal
central sibilant lateralplain lab.plain lab.
Plosive/
Affricate
plainpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
ejectivepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Sonorantplainpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
glottalizedpronounced as /ˀm/pronounced as /ˀn/pronounced as /ˀl/pronounced as /ˀj/pronounced as /ˀw/
Vowels are represented as pronounced as //i ə u a// and pronounced as //iː uː aː//.[2] Allophones are also noted. Instead of the high pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, Kinkade claims the vowels are pronounced as //e ə o a eː oː aː//, based on the most common allophones.[3]
SoundAllophone
pronounced as //i//pronounced as /[i]/, pronounced as /[e]/, pronounced as /[ɛ]/
pronounced as //a//pronounced as /[aˤ]/, pronounced as /[a]/, pronounced as /[ɐ]/
pronounced as //ə//pronounced as /[ɨ]/, pronounced as /[ə]/, pronounced as /[ʌ]/, pronounced as /[ɪ]/, pronounced as /[ʊ]/
pronounced as //u//pronounced as /[u]/, pronounced as /[o]/, pronounced as /[ɔ]/

Notes and References

  1. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . UNESCO . 3rd . 2010 . 11.
  2. Snow. Charles T.. A Lower Chehalis Phonology. June 1969 . Master of Arts . University of Kansas . 2022-05-29 . 1808/26715 . free.
  3. Kinkade . M. Dale . Phonology and Morphology of Upper Chehalis: I . International Journal of American Linguistics . July 1963 . 29 . 3 . 181–195 . 10.1086/464734.