The Tolowa language (also called Chetco-Tolowa, or Siletz Dee-ni) is a member of the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

subgroup of the Athabaskan language family. Together with three other closely related languages (Lower Rogue River Athabaskan, Upper Rogue River Athabaskan or Galice-Applegate and

Upper Umpqua Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both * ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found f ...

or Etnemitane) it forms a distinctive Oregon Athabaskan cluster within the subgroup.

Geographic distribution

At the time of first European contact Tolowa was spoken in several large and prosperous village communities along the

Del Norte County ), in California , seat_type = County seat , seat = Crescent City , parts_type = Largest city , parts = Crescent City , unit_pref = US , area_total_sq_mi = 1230 , area_land_sq_mi = 1006 , area_water_sq_mi = 223 , elevation_max_footnot ...

coast in the far northwestern corner of California and along the southern coast of adjacent

Curry County, Oregon Curry County is the southwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,446. The county seat is Gold Beach. The county is named for George Law Curry, a two-time governor of the Oregon Territo ...

. Today the term ''Tolowa'' (or sometimes ''Smith River'') is used primarily by those residing in California, most of whom are affiliated with Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation. Those residing in Oregon, most of whom are affiliated with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz southwest of Portland, where their ancestors were removed in the 1850s (Beckham 1971), refer to themselves as ''Chetco'', ''Tututni'', or ''Deeni''. For details of the linguistic documentation of Chetco-Tolowa and a survey of Oregon Athabaskan phonology and grammar, see Golla (2011:70-75).

Phonology

As with many

Athabaskan languages Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...

, Tolowa features contrasting aspirated, unaspirated, and ejective stops, as well as contrasting vowel length and nasality. Tolowa is not fully tonal, but instead has a

pitch accent A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...

. This is typical of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages.

Consonants

/ɬ/ is affricated to after vowels. /j/ is realized as after nasal vowels.

Vowels

Tolowa vowels have some degree of allophonicity. /u/ and /o/ are in free variation; is an allophone of /a/ after palatals and velars; /ə/ is raised to near palatals and to before velars, and is nasalized ( �̃ before nasal consonants. In addition, Tolowa has three diphthongs: i u and iSiletz Talking Dictionary
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Alphabet

Syllables are usually separated with an en dash (-) for clarity. The 1997 Tolowa Dee-niʼ alphabet (below) replaces the special characters ą, į, ɨ, ł, ų, and ʉ with a~, i~, lh, u~ and v, respectively. Note that the distinction between ɨ and ʉ is lost.

Tolowa language revitalization

Loren Bommelyn, a fluent speaker and linguist, has published several pedagogical books and teaches young Tolowa students in Crescent City, California. Three alphabets have been used since the formation of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Language program, sponsored by the Del Norte Indian Welfare Association in 1969. The first was a "Tolowa version of the Uni-fon alphabet', written by hand. A new Practical Alphabet was devised in 1993 for purposes of typing on the computer. In 1997, Loren Bommelyn developed an alphabet which did not require a barred l or nasal hook characters called the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Alphabet (see previous section).

Siletz Dee-ni language revitalization

Siletz Dee-ni is a form of Tolowa historically spoken by members of the

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern Calif ...

on the Siletz Indian Reservation in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. According to a report by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, it is the last of many languages spoken on the reservation and was said in 2007 to have only one living speaker. However, the language has since been at least partially revived, and in some areas, ‘many now text each other in Siletz Dee-ni’. Courses for 6th- through 8th-graders have been offered at Oregon's Siletz Valley Charter School. Alfred "Bud" Lane has gathered 14,000 words of Siletz Dee-ni, a variety of Chetco-Tolowa "restricted to a small area on the central Oregon coast," in an online audio/picture dictionary for the use of the community.

Notes

Bibliography

* Beckham, Stephen Dow (1971). ''Requiem for a People: The Rogue River Indians and the Frontiersmen.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. * Bommelyn, Loren (1995). ''Now You're Talking Tolowa.'' Arcata: Humboldt State University, Center for Indian Community Development. * Collins, James (1998). ''Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses.'' London: Routledge * Golla, Victor (2011). ''California Indian Languages.'' Berkeley: University of California Press. . * Macnaughtan, Don. ''Oregon Athapaskan Languages: Bibliography of the Athapaskan Languages of Oregon''.

External links

*
Siletz Tribal Language Project

at native-languages.org
Tolowa language
overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages *
Tah-Ah-Dun Indian Magnet Charter School
* *
OLAC resources in and about the Tolowa languageOLAC resources in and about the Chetco language
{{Languages of California Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages * Indigenous languages of Oregon Endangered Athabaskan languages Native American language revitalization Languages extinct in the 2000s 2001 disestablishments in Oregon Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast