Lushootseed,[lower-alpha 1] formerly known as Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish, or Skagit-Nisqually, is a Central Coast Salish language of the Salishan language family. Lushootseed is the general name for the dialect continuum composed of two main dialects, Northern Lushootseed and Southern Lushootseed, which are further separated into smaller sub-dialects.
Lushootseed was historically spoken across southern and western Puget Sound roughly between modern-day Bellingham and Olympia by a large number of Indigenous peoples, numbering 12,000 at its peak.[2][3] Today, however, it is primarily a ceremonial language, spoken for heritage or symbolic purposes, and there are about 472 second-language speakers.[4] It is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Despite this, many Lushootseed-speaking tribes are attempting to revitalize their language in daily use, with several language programs and classes offered across the region.[5][6][7][8][9]
The name comes from ləš, an archaic name for Puget Sound, and dxʷ-...=ucid, meaning 'language,' roughly translating to "Puget Sound language" The affix dxʷ- also means 'filled with' or 'throughout', and is common in Lushootseed names.[citation needed] The southern pronunciation txʷəlsucid is derived from the original by de-voicing d into t and switching the position of l and ə.[3][10]
Phonology
Lushootseed has a complex consonantal phonology and 4 vowel phonemes. Along with more common voicing and labialization contrasts, Lushootseed has a plain-glottalic contrast, which is realized as laryngealized with sonorants, ejective with voiceless stops or fricatives.
Lushootseed has no phonemicnasals. However, the nasals [m], [m̰], [n], and [n̰] may appear in some speech styles and words as variants of /b/ and /d/.[11]
Lushootseed can be considered a relatively agglutinating language, given its high number of morphemes, including a large number of lexical suffixes. Word order is fairly flexible, although it is generally considered to be verb-subject-object (VSO).[14]
Lushootseed is capable of creating grammatically correct sentences that contain only a verb, with no subject or object. All information beyond the action is to be understood by context. This can be demonstrated in ʔuʔəy’dub '[someone] managed to find [someone/something]'.[15] Sentences which contain no verb at all are also common, as Lushootseed has no copula. An example of such a sentence is stab əw̓ə tiʔiɫ 'What [is] that?'.[16]
Despite its general status as VSO, Lushootseed can be rearranged to be subject-verb-object (SVO) and verb-object-subject (VOS). Doing so does not modify the words themselves, but requires the particle ʔə to mark the change. The exact nature of this particle is the subject of some debate.
Prepositions in Lushootseed are almost entirely handled by one word, ʔal, which can mean 'on, above, in, beside, around' among a number of potential other meanings. They come before the object they reference, much like in English. Examples of this can be found in the following sentences:
stab əw̓ə tiʔiɫ ʔal tə stuləkʷ 'What is that in the river?'
ʔuyayus ti dbad ʔal tudiʔ 'My father is working over there.'
šəqabac ʔal ti piit 'On top of the bed.' (this example is interesting as šəqabac actually means 'on top of a large/bulky object' on its own, but still contains the ʔal preposition)
Pronouns
Lushootseed has four subject pronouns: čəd 'I' (first-person singular), čəɬ 'we' (first-person plural), čəxʷ 'you' (second-person singular), and čələp 'you' (second-person plural). It does not generally refer to the third person in any way.
Pronouns of Lushootseed
First Person
Second Person
Third Person
Singular
čəd
čəxʷ
∅
Plural
čəɬ
čələp
∅
The subject pronoun always comes in the second position in the sentence:
dxʷləbiʔ čəxʷ ʔu 'Are you Lummi?' xʷiʔ čəd lədxʷləbiʔ 'I am not Lummi.'
Here, negation takes the first position, the subject pronoun takes the second, and 'Lummi' is pushed to the end of the sentence.[15]
Negation
Negation in Lushootseed takes the form of an adverb xʷiʔ 'no, none, nothing' which always comes at the beginning of the sentence that is to be negated. It is constructed in two possible ways, one for negatives of existence, and one for negatives of identity. If taking the form of a negative of identity, a proclitic lə- must be added to the sentence on the next adverb. If there are no further adverbs in the sentence, the proclitic attaches to the head word of the predicate, as in the sentence xʷiʔ čəxʷ sixʷ ləbakʷɬ 'Don't get hurt again'.[15]
Almost all instances of a verb in Lushootseed (excluding the zero copula) carry a prefix indicating their tense and/or aspect. Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of these prefixes, along with their meanings and applications.
Prefix
Usage
ʔəs-
Imperfective present
lə-
Imperfective present
ʔu-
Completed telic actions
tu-
Past
ɬu-
Future
ƛ̕u-
Habitual
gʷ(ə)-
Subjunctive/future
The prefix ʔəs- is one of the most common. It indicates an imperfective aspect-present tense (similar to English '-ing') for verbs that do not involve motion. More specifically, a verb may use ʔəs- if it does not result in a change of position for its subject. It is commonly known as a "state of being":
ʔəsƛ̕ubil čəd. 'I am feeling fine.' or 'I am in good health.'
If a verb does involve motion, the ʔəs- prefix is replaced with lə-:
ləƛ̕a čəd ʔálʔal. 'I'm going home.'
Completed or telic actions use the prefix ʔu-. Most verbs without ʔəs- or lə- will use ʔu-. Some verbs also exhibit a contrast in meaning between lə- and ʔu-, and only one of them is correct:
ʔusaxʷəb čəxʷ. 'You jump(ed).'
The verb saxʷəb literally means 'to jump, leap, or run, especially in a short burst of energy', and is correctly used with ʔu-. In contrast, the verb təlawil, which means 'to jump or run for an extended period of time', is used with lə-:
lətəlawil čəxʷ. 'You are jumping.'
Possession
There are five possessive affixes, derived from the pronouns:
Possessive Suffixes
First Person
Second Person
Third Person
Singular
d-
ad-
-s
Plural
-čəɬ
-ləp
(none)
The third person singular -s is considered marginal and does not work with an actual lexical possessor.
Bust of Chief Seattle with accompanying text in Lushootseed: ti šišəgʷł gʷəl al tiʔəʔəxʷ sgʷaʔčəł səxʷəsłałlilčəł siʔał dəgʷi gʷəl liiiiləxʷ dʔiišəd cəłul̕ul̕ cəł ʔəslax̌ədxʷ ti gʷaalapu
Ethnologue quotes a source published in 1990 (and therefore presumably reflecting the situation in the late 1980s), according to which there were 60 fluent speakers of Lushootseed, evenly divided between the northern and southern dialects.[18] On the other hand, the Ethnologue list of United States languages also lists, alongside Lushootseed's 60 speakers, 100 speakers for Skagit, 107 for Southern Puget Sound Salish, and 10 for Snohomish (a dialect on the boundary between the northern and southern varieties).[18] Some sources given for these figures, however, go back to the 1970s when the language was less critically endangered. Linguist Marianne Mithun has collected more recent data on the number of speakers of various Native American languages, and could document that by the end of the 1990s there were only a handful of elders left who spoke Lushootseed fluently. The language was extensively documented and studied by linguists with the aid of tribal elder Vi Hilbert, d. 2008, who was the last speaker with a full native command of Lushootseed.[1] There are efforts at reviving the language, and instructional materials have been published.
As of 2014, there were only five second-language speakers of Lushootseed. Although there are not yet native speakers, in 2022, there were approximately 472 second-language Lushootseed speakers in 2022, according to data collected by the Puyallup Tribe. By their definition, a "speaker" includes anyone who speaks in Lushootseed for at least an hour each day. [4]
Language revitalization
As of 2013[update], the Tulalip Tribes' Lushootseed Language Department teaches classes in Lushootseed,[5][6] and its website has Lushootseed phrases with audio.[19] The Tulalip Montessori School also teaches Lushootseed to young children.[7]Tulalip Lushootseed language teachers also teach at the Tulalip Early Learning Academy, Quil Ceda-Tulalip Elementary in the Marysville School District, Totem Middle School, and Marysville-Getchell, Marysville-Pilchuck and Heritage High Schools. Since 1996, the Tulalip Lushootseed Department has hosted the annual dxʷləšucid sʔəsqaləkʷ ʔə ti wiw̓suʔ, a summer language camp for children. Teachers also offer family classes in the evening every year, making Lushootseed a family experience.[citation needed]
There are also efforts within the Puyallup Tribe. Their website and social media, aimed at anyone interested in learning the language, are updated often.[8]
To facilitate the use of Lushootseed in electronic files, in 2008 the Tulaip Tribes contracted type designer Juliet Shen to create Unicode-compliant typefaces that met the needs of the language. Drawing upon traditional Lushootseed carvings and artwork, she developed two typefaces: Lushootseed School and Lushootseed Sulad.[21][22]
In the summer of 2016, the first ever adult immersion program in Lushootseed was offered at the University of Washington's Tacoma campus. It was sponsored by The Puyallup Tribal Language Program in partnership with University of Washington Tacoma and its School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.[23] A similar program is scheduled to be offered in August 2019, with the instructors Danica Sterud Miller, Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma, and Zalmai Zahir, a PhD student of theoretical linguistics at the University of Oregon.[24]
Dialects
Historical extent of Lushootseed dialects
Lushootseed consists of two main dialect groups, Northern Lushootseed (dxʷləšucid) and Southern Lushootseed (txʷəlšucid~xʷəlšucid). Both of these dialects can then be broken down into further subdialects:[25]
There is no consensus on whether the Skykomish dialect should be grouped in the Northern or Southern dialect group.[25][26]
Dialects differ in several ways. Pronunciation between dialects is different. In Northern dialects, the stress of the word generally falls on the first non-schwa of the root, whereas in the Southern dialects, stress usually is placed on the penultimate syllable. Some words do not fit the pattern, but generally, pronunciation is consistent in those ways. Northern Lushootseed also was affected by progressive dissimilation targeting palatal fricatives and affricates, whereas Southern Lushootseed was not, leading to some words like čəgʷəš ("wife") being pronounced čəgʷas in Northern dialects.[25]
Differences in stress in Northern and Southern Lushootseed. (Stress is marked with an acute accent.)[25]
Northern Lushootseed
Southern Lushootseed
English
bədáʔ
bə́dəʔ
child
sc̓əlíč
sc̓ə́lič
backbone
č̓ƛ̕áʔ
č̓ə́ƛ̕əʔ
rock
dəč̓úʔ
də́čuʔ
one
k̓ədáyu
k̓ádəyu
rat
kʷədád
kʷə́dəd
take/hold something
təyíl
táyil
go upstream
ʔəcá
ʔə́cə
I, me
Different dialects often use completely different words. For example, the word for "raccoon" is x̌aʔx̌əlus in Northern Lushootseed, whereas bəlups is used in Southern Lushootseed.[25]
Morphology also differs between Northern and Southern Lushootseed. Northern Lushootseed and Southern Lushootseed have related, but different determiner systems. There are also several differences in utilizing the prefix for marking "place where" or "reason for," in subordinate clauses, with Northern Lushootseed using dəxʷ- and Southern Lushootseed using sxʷ-.[25]
See Determiners for more information on this dialectical variation.
Orthography
According to work published by Vi Hilbert and other Lushootseed-language specialists, Lushootseed uses a morphophonemic writing system meaning that it is a phonemic alphabet which does not change to reflect the pronunciation such as when an affix is introduced. The chart below is based on the Lushootseed Dictionary. Typographic variations such as ⟨p'⟩ and ⟨pʼ⟩ do not indicate phonemic distinctions. Capital letters are not used in Lushootseed.[27]
Some older works based on the Dictionary of Puget Salish distinguishes between schwas that are part of the root word and those inserted through agglutination which are written in superscript.[28]
The Tulalip Tribes of Washington's Lushootseed Language Department created a display with nearly all the letters in the Lushootseed alphabet, sans the letter b̓, which is a rare sound which no words begin with.
The Lushootseed language originates from the coastal region of Northwest Washington State and the Southwest coast of Canada. There are words in the Lushootseed language which are related to the environment and the fishing economy that surrounded the Salish tribes. The following tables show different words from different Lushootseed dialects relating to the salmon fishing and coastal economies.
Southern Lushootseed Salmonoid Vocabulary
sčədadx
a word that covers all Pacific salmon and some species of trout.
ʔəsdiɬdiɬgʷəs ti sdᶻəw̓il ʔi ti staltalx̌ ʔə ti sbək̓ʷaʔkʷbixʷ tul̕ʔal ti sgʷəcs. ʔəstalx̌ əlgʷəʔ kʷi gʷəsx̌əčbids gʷəl ɬutabab ti bək̓ʷaʔkʷbixʷ x̌əɬ ti tə təɬ syəyaʔyaʔ.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
The Salishan languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America. They are characterised by agglutinativity and syllabic consonants. For instance the Nuxalk word clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’, meaning "he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant", has twelve obstruent consonants in a row with no phonetic or phonemic vowels.
The Stillaguamish people are a Southern Coast Salish people Indigenous to the Stillaguamish River valley in northwestern Washington State in the United States, near the city of Arlington, Washington. The Stillaguamish speak Northern Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language. Although usage of the language has declined, there are ongoing revitalization efforts by the Stillaguamish Tribe.
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is a federally-recognized tribe of Puyallup people from western Washington state, United States. The tribe is primarily located on the Puyallup Indian Reservation, although they also control off-reservation trust lands.
The Duwamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people in western Washington, and the Indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle.
Sauk-Suiattle, or Sah-Ku-Me-Hu, is a federally recognized Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. The tribe historically lived along the banks of the Sauk, Suiattle, Cascade, Stillaguamish, and Skagit rivers, in the area known as Sauk Prairie at the foot of Whitehorse Mountain in the North Cascade Range.
The Swinomishpeople are a historically Lushootseed-speaking Native American people in western Washington state in the United States. The Tribe lives in the southeastern part of Fidalgo Island in northern Puget Sound, near the San Juan Islands, in Skagit County, Washington. Skagit County is located about 70 miles (110 km) north of Seattle.
The Coast Salish languages, also known as the Central Salish languages, are a branch of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the Pacific Northwest, in the territory that is now known as the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington State around Puget Sound. The term "Coast Salish" also refers to the cultures in British Columbia and Washington who speak one of these languages or dialects.
The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Snoqualmie people. They are Coast Salish Native American peoples from the Snoqualmie Valley in east King and Snohomish Counties in Washington state. Other names for the Snoqualmies include Snoqualmu, Snoqualmoo, Snoqualmick, Snoqualamuke, and Snuqualmi.
The Snohomish people are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people who are indigenous to the Puget Sound region of Washington State. Most Snohomish are enrolled in the Tulalip Tribes of Washington and reside on the reservation or nearby, although others are enrolled in other tribes, and some are members of the non-recognized Snohomish Tribe of Indians. Traditionally, the Snohomish occupied a wide area of land, including the Snohomish River, parts of Whidbey and Camano Islands, and the nearby coastline of Skagit Bay and Puget Sound. They had at least 25 permanent villages throughout their lands, but in 1855, signed the Treaty of Point Elliott and were relocated to the Tulalip Reservation. Although some moved to the reservation, the harsh conditions, lack of land, and oppressive policies of the United States government caused many to leave.
Southern Lushootseed, also called Twulshootseed or Whulshootseed in the Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie dialects, is the southern dialect of Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language in western Washington. It was historically spoken by the Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Suquamish, Duwamish, Nisqually, and Squaxin Island tribes The last native speaker was Ellen Williams (1923-2016).
The Sammamish people are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people. They are indigenous to the Sammamish River Valley in central King County, Washington. The Sammamish speak Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language which was historically spoken across most of Puget Sound, although its usage today is mostly reserved for cultural and ceremonial practices.
Vi Hilbert was an Upper Skagit elder and conservationist of her traditional culture and of the Lushootseed language, of which she was the last fully fluent heritage speaker. She taught Lushootseed at the University of Washington for 17 years (1971–1988), where she also transcribed and translated Lushootseed recordings from the 1950s. This work is preserved in the university's audio library.
The Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians, formerly known as the Stillaguamish Tribe of Washington, is a federally recognized tribe of Stillaguamish people located in Snohomish County, Washington. They are descended from the aboriginal Stillaguamish, listed on the Treaty of Point Elliot as the Stoluck-wa-mish River Tribe.
The Snoqualmie people are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people indigenous to the Snoqualmie Valley, located in east King and Snohomish counties in the state of Washington.
The Kikiallus people are a Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish people Indigenous to parts of western Washington.
The Steilacoompeople are Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people, indigenous to the southern Puget Sound region of Washington state.
Lushootseed grammar is the grammar of the Lushootseed language, a Central Coast Salish language of the Salishan language family.
The Skykomish are a Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish people indigenous to the Skykomish Valley in the Cascade Mountains of Washington.
The Puyallup are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people indigenous to the Puget Sound region of Washington state. They are primarily enrolled in and represented by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, a federally-recognized Indian tribe located near Tacoma.
Bates, D., Hess, T., & Hilbert, V. (1994). Lushootseed dictionary. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN9780295973234
Beck, David. "Transitivity and causation in Lushootseed morphology." Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle 13 (1996): 11–20.
Browner, Tara (2009). Music of the First Nations: Tradition and Innovation in Native North America. University of Illinois Press. pp.35–36.
Indiana University, Bloomington (1996). Lushootseed texts: an introduction to Puget Salish narrative aesthetics. Studies in the anthropology of North American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington. ISBN0803212623.
Chamberlain, Rebecca, Lushootseed Language & Literature: Program reader. (Lushootseed language, cultural, and storytelling traditions.)
Hess, Thom (1995). Lushootseed reader. University of Montana occasional papers in linguistics. S.l.: Tulalip Tribes. ISBN1879763141.
Hess, Thom and Vi Hilbert. Lushootseed Book 1; The language of the Skagit, Nisqually, and other tribes of Puget Sound. An Introduction. Lushootseed Press 1995
Hess, Thom and Vi Hilbert. Lushootseed Book 2 (Advanced Lushootseed). Lushootseed Press, 1995
Hess, Thom (1995). Lushootseed Reader with Introductory Grammar. Missoula: University of Montana. ISBN1879763117.
Hilbert, Vi. Haboo: Native American Stories from Puget Sound. Seattle: University of Washington, 1985
Hilbert, Vi, Crisca Bierwest, Thom Hess. Way of the Lushootseed People; Ceremonies & Traditions of North Puget Sound's First People. Third Edition, Lushootseed Press, 2001
dxʷlešucid xʷgʷədgʷatəd tul̓ʔal taqʷšəblu; Some Lushootseed Vocabulary from taqʷšəblu. Lushootseed Press, 1993
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