Northern Straits Salish (also referred to as North Straits Salish) is a language composed of several mutually-intelligible dialects within the Coast Salish language family spoken in western

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. The various dialects of Northern Straits Salish are often referred to as separate languages, both in historic and modern times, and although their similarities are recognized by its speakers, there is no word for the language as a whole.

Dialects

The dialects of Northern Straits are as follows: (''†'') marks a dialect that has no native speakers. * Lummi () * Saanich (, ) * Samish () * Semiahmoo (''†'') * Songhees (; also known as Lekwungen or Songish) * T'sou-ke (also known as Sooke)

Classification

Northern Straits is a Salishan language within the Coast Salish branch. Among the Coast Salish languages, Northern Straits is one of the two languages in the Straits Salish branch, the other being

Klallam The Klallam (; also known as the S'Klallam or Clallam) are a Coast Salish people Indigenous to the northern Olympic Peninsula. The language of the Klallam is the Klallam language (), a language closely related to the North Straits Salish lang ...

. Klallam and Northern Straits are very closely related, but have lost mutual intelligibility. Historians have historically classified the various dialects of Northern Straits and Klallam together in many ways. Linguist George Gibbs, in 1863, classified Klallam, Sooke, and Songhees as being one language, Lummi, Saanich, and Semiahmoo being another language, and Samish being a dialect of another Coast Salish language,

Lushootseed Lushootseed ( ), historically 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 di ...

. One missionary, Myron Eells, believed that Lummi was a dialect of Klallam. German anthropologist

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...

believed that Klallam was part of the same language as Northern Straits. Furthermore, Charles Hill-Tout, a Canadian anthropologist, classified Sooke, Saanich, Songhees, Lummi, and Klallam as one language called "Lekonenen," and Songhees as another called "Lekunen." What Hill-Tout believed to be the names of the languages were actually derived from the words (the Songhees name for Songhees dialect) and (the Songhees name for the Songhees people). Despite this, Klallam and the dialects of Northern Straits Salish are not mutually intelligible.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

An Outline of the Morphology and Phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish
{{Indigenous peoples in Washington Coast Salish languages Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations languages in Canada Indigenous languages of Washington (state)