Dəxʷləšucid : Lushootseed - Puget Salish

Many nations speak one of the dialects classified as Lushootseed. The language is divided into two broad variants: northern and southern, and is spoken in the land between Puget Sound and the Cascade mountains. Northern nations include: Nuwhaha, Mesekwegwils, Chobaabish, Smaliwhu, Miskaiwhu, Swinomish, Nookachamps, Sauk, Suiattle, Squiuamish, Kikiallus, Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Kwehtlmamish, Staktalijamish, and Skykomish. In the southern portion of Lushootseed territory are: Sammamish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Saktamish, Stkehlmish, Duwamish, Stkamish, Yilalkoamish, Skopamish, Smulkamish, Puyallup, Tkwakwamish, Homamish, Squaxin, Shotlemamish, Sahewamish, Tapeeksin, Squiaitl, Nusebchatl, Stehcass, Nisqually and Meshal.

The orthography used in this language follows the Americanist linguistics tradition and has been adapted from Hess.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.

ISO 639-3 language code: lut

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census, there are 81 speakers of Puget Sound Salish, which could also include Northern Straits Salish.

Consonants

  bilabial alveolar alveolar affricate lateral palato-alveolar palatal velar rounded velar uvular rounded uvular glottal
voiced stop b d dᶻ   ǰ   g      
voiceless stop p t c   č   k q ʔ
ejective stop ƛ̓ č̓   k̓ʷ q̓ʷ  
voiceless fricative     s ɫ š     x̌ʷ h
resonant       l   y   w      
glottalised resonant                

Vowels

  front central back
high i   u
mid   ə  
low     a

Notes

  • The occasional long vowel is shown with a raised dot: long i is ‹i·›.
  • Primary stress (when marked) is shown with an acúte accent, secondary stress is written with a gràve accent.
  • There is some variation on how the “voiceless-l” is written: with a tilde ‹ɫ›, with a slash ‹ł›, or with a belt ‹ɬ›.
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Last Modified: 24-Feb-2011