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Salishan languages
Salishan languages
Salishan languages
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Salishan
Salish
Geographic
distribution		Pacific Northwest and Interior Plateau/Columbia Plateau in Canada and the United States
EthnicitySalish peoples
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-2 / 5sal
Glottologsali1255
Pre-contact distribution of Salishan languages (in red)

The Salishan languages (/ˈseɪlɪʃən/ SAY-lish-ən), also known as the Salish languages (/ˈseɪlɪʃ/ SAY-lish), are a family of languages found in the Pacific Northwest in North America, namely the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.[1] They are characterised by agglutinativity and syllabic consonants. For instance the Nuxalk word clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ⓘ (IPA: [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]), meaning 'he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant',[2] has twelve obstruent consonants in a row with no phonetic or phonemic vowels.

The Salishan languages are a geographically contiguous block, with the exception of the Nuxalk (Bella Coola), in the Central Coast of British Columbia, and the extinct Tillamook language, to the south on the central coast of Oregon.

The terms Salish and Salishan are used interchangeably by linguists and anthropologists. The name Salish or Selisch is the endonym of the Flathead Nation. Linguists later applied the name Salish to related languages in the Pacific Northwest. Many of the peoples do not have self-designations (autonyms) in their languages; they frequently have specific names for local dialects, as the local group was more important culturally than larger tribal relations.

All Salishan languages are considered critically endangered, some extremely so with only three or four speakers left. Those languages considered extinct are often referred to as "dormant languages", in that no speakers exist currently, but still serve as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group. In the early 21st century, few Salish languages have more than 2,000 speakers. Fluent daily speakers of almost all Salishan languages are generally over sixty years of age; many languages have only speakers over eighty.

Salishan languages are most commonly written using the Americanist phonetic notation to account for the various vowels and consonants that do not exist in most modern alphabets.[citation needed] Many groups have evolved their own distinctive uses of the Latin alphabet, however, such as the Saanich.

Family division

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The Salishan language family consists of twenty-three languages. The family is typically organized into two main divisions with variation: Coast Salish (Coast Division), Interior Salish (Interior Division), Tillamook, and Nuxalk.[a][3][4][5] Nuxalk is sometimes classified as part of the Coastal Division of languages.[b][3] Tillamook is also sometimes classified as part of the Coast Division.[c][4] It was proposed by Morris Swadesh that the Olympic branch of Coast Salishan languages is a natural subdivision within the family, although linguists today generally accept the Olympic branch as a subgrouping within the Coast Salish division.[6] The Interior Salish languages have a higher degree of closeness to each other than the more distant Coast Salish languages.[5]

Language tree

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Below is a list of Salishan languages, dialects, and subdialects. The genetic unity among the Salish languages is evident. Neighboring groups have communicated often, to the point that it is difficult to untangle the influence each dialect and language has upon others. This list is a linguistic classification that may not correspond to political divisions. In contrast to classifications made by linguistic scholars, many Salishan groups consider their particular variety of speech to be a separate language rather than a dialect.[citation needed]

Distribution of Salishan languages at the beginning of the 19th century

Languages or dialects with no living native speakers are marked with † at the highest level.

Reduced overview

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Detailed overview

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  • Interior Salish
    • Northern
      • Shuswap (also: Secwepemctsín, səxwəpməxcín)
        • Eastern
          • Kinbasket
          • Shuswap Lake
        • Western
          • Canim Lake
          • Chu Chua
          • Deadman's Creek–Kamloops
          • Fraser River
          • Pavilion-Bonaparte
      • Lillooet (also: Lilloet, St'át'imcets)
        • Lillooet-Fountain
        • Mount Currie–Douglas
      • Thompson River Salish (also: Nlakaʼpamux, Ntlakapmuk, nɬeʔkepmxcín, Thompson River, Thompson Salish, Thompson, known in frontier times as the Hakamaugh, Klackarpun, Couteau or Knife Indians)
        • Lytton
        • Nicola Valley
        • Spuzzum–Boston Bar
        • Thompson Canyon
    • Southern
      • Coeur d’Alene (also: Snchitsuʼumshtsn, snčícuʔumšcn)
      • Columbia-Moses (also: Columbia, Nxaʔamxcín) †[d]
        • Chelan
        • Entiat
        • Columbian
        • Wenatchee (also: Pesquous)
      • Colville-Okanagan (also: Okanagan, Nsilxcín, Nsíylxcən, ta nukunaqínxcən)
        • Northern
        • Southern
          • Colville-Inchelium
          • Methow
          • San Poil–Nespelem
          • Southern Okanogan
      • Montana Salish (Kalispel–Pend d'Oreille language, Spokane–Kalispel–Bitterroot Salish–Upper Pend d'Oreille)
        • Bitterroot Salish (also: Séliš, Bitterroot, Flathead)
        • Kalispel
          • Chewelah
          • Kalispel (also: Qalispé, Lower Pend d'Oreille, Lower Kalispel)
          • Upper Pend d’Oreille (also: Sɫq̓etk͏ʷmsčin̓t, Čłqetkʷmcin, Qlispé, Upper Kalispel)
        • Spokane (also: Npoqínišcn)

Genetic relations

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No relationship to any other language family is well established.

Edward Sapir suggested that the Salishan languages might be related to the Wakashan and Chimakuan languages in a hypothetical Mosan family. This proposal persists primarily through Sapir's stature: with little evidence for such a family, no progress has been made in reconstructing it.[8]

The Salishan languages, principally Chehalis, contributed greatly to the vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon.[citation needed]

Family features

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Syntax

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The syntax of Salish languages is notable for its word order (verb-initial), its valency-marking, and the use of several forms of negation.

Word order

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Although there is a wide array of Salish languages, they all share some basic traits. All are verb initial languages, with VSO (verb-subject-object) being the most common word order. Some Salishan languages allow for VOS and SVO as well. There is no case marking, but central noun phrases will often be preceded by determiners while non-central NPs will take prepositions. Some Salishan languages are ergative, or split-ergative, and many take unique object agreement forms in passive statements. In the St'át'imcets (Lillooet Salish) language, for example, absolutive relative clauses (including a head, like "the beans", and a restricting clause, like "that she re-fried", which references the head) omit person markers, while ergative relative clauses keep person makers on the subject, and sometimes use the topic morpheme -tali. Thus, St'át'imcets is split-ergative, as it is not ergative all the time.[9] Subject and object pronouns usually take the form of affixes that attach to the verb. All Salish languages are head-marking. Possession is marked on the possessed noun phrase as either a prefix or a suffix, while person is marked on predicates. In Central Salish languages like Tillamook and Shuswap, only one plain NP is permitted aside from the subject.

Valency-marking

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Salishan languages are known for their polysynthetic nature. A verb stem will often have at least one affix, which is typically a suffix. These suffixes perform a variety of functions, such as transitive, causative, reciprocal, reflexive, and applicative. Applicative affixes seem to be present on the verb when the direct object is central to the event being discussed, but is not the theme of the sentence. The direct object may be a recipient, for example. It may also refer to a related noun phrase, like the goal a verb intends to achieve, or the instrument used in carrying out the action of the verb. In the sentence ‘The man used the axe to chop the log with’, the axe is the instrument and is indicated in Salish through an applicative affix on the verb.

Applicative affixes increase the number of affixes a verb can take on, that is, its syntactic valence. They are also known as "transitivizers" because they can change a verb from intransitive to transitive. For example, in the sentence 'I got scared.', 'scared' is intransitive. However, with the addition of an applicative affix, which is syntactically transitive, the verb in Salish becomes transitive and the sentence can come to mean ‘I got scared of you.’. In some Salishan languages, such as Sḵwx̲wú7mesh, the transitive forms of verbs are morphologically distinctive and marked with a suffix, while the intransitive forms are not.[10] In others such as Halkomelem, intransitive forms have a suffix as well. In some Salish languages, transitivizers can be either controlled (the subject conducted the action on purpose) or limited-control (the subject did not intend to conduct the action, or only managed to conduct a difficult action).[11]

These transitivizers can be followed by object suffixes, which come to modern Salishan languages via Proto-Salish. Proto-Salish had two types of object suffixes, neutral (regular transitive) and causative (when a verb causes the object to do something or be in a certain state), that were then divided into first, second, and third persons, and either singular or plural. Tentative reconstructions of these suffixes include the neutral singular *-c (1st person), *-ci (2nd person), and *-∅ (3rd person), the causative singular *-mx (1st), *-mi (2nd), and *-∅ (3rd), the neutral plural *-al or *-muɬ (1st), *-ulm or *-muɬ (2nd), and the causative plural *-muɬ (1st and 2nd). In Salishan languages spoken since Proto-Salish, the forms of those suffixes have been subject to vowel shifts, borrowing pronoun forms from other languages (such as Kutenai), and merging of neutral and causative forms (as in Secwepemc, Nlaka'pamuctsin, Twana, Straits Salishan languages, and Halkomelem).[12]

Three patterns of negation

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There are three general patterns of negation among the Salishan languages. The most common pattern involves a negative predicate in the form of an impersonal and intransitive stative verb, which occurs in sentence initial position. The second pattern involves a sentence initial negative particle that is often attached to the sentence's subject, and the last pattern simply involves a sentence initial negative particle without any change in inflectional morphology or a determiner/complementizer. In addition, there is a fourth restricted pattern that has been noted only in Squamish.

Nounlessness

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Salishan languages (along with the Wakashan and the extinct Chimakuan languages) exhibit predicate/argument flexibility. All content words are able to occur as the head of the predicate (including words with typically 'noun-like' meanings that refer to entities) or in an argument (including those with 'verb-like' meanings that refer to events). Words with noun-like meanings are automatically equivalent to [be + NOUN] when used predicatively, such as Lushootseed sbiaw which means '(is a) coyote'. Words with more verb-like meanings, when used as arguments, are equivalent to [one that VERBs] or [VERB+er]. For example, Lushootseed ʔux̌ʷ means '(one that) goes'.

The following examples are from Lushootseed.

Sentence (1a) ʔux̌ʷ ti sbiaw
Morphemes ʔux̌ʷ ti sbiaw
Gloss go SPEC coyote
Kinkade interpretation goes that which is a coyote
Syntax Predicate Subject
Translation The/a coyote goes.
Sentence (1b) sbiaw ti ʔux̌ʷ
Morphemes sbiaw ti ʔux̌ʷ
Gloss coyote SPEC go
Kinkade interpretation is a coyote that which goes
Syntax Predicate Subject
Translation The one who goes is a coyote.

An almost identical pair of sentences from St’át’imcets demonstrates that this phenomenon is not restricted to Lushootseed.

Sentence (2a) t’ak tink’yápa
Morphemes t’ak ti- nk’yap -a
Gloss go.along DET- coyote -DET
Kinkade interpretation goes along that which is a coyote
Syntax Predicate Subject
Translation The/a coyote goes along.
Sentence (2b) nk’yap tit’áka
Morphemes nk’yap ti- t’ak -a
Gloss coyote DET- go.along -DET
Kinkade interpretation is a coyote that which goes along
Syntax Predicate Subject
Translation The one going along is a coyote.

This and similar behaviour in other Salish and Wakashan languages has been used as evidence for a complete lack of a lexical distinction between nouns and verbs in these families. This has become controversial in recent years. David Beck of the University of Alberta contends that there is evidence for distinct lexical categories of 'noun' and 'verb' by arguing that, although any distinction is neutralised in predicative positions, words that can be categorised as 'verbs' are marked when used in syntactic argument positions. He argues that Salishan languages are omnipredicative, but only have 'uni-directional flexibility' (not 'bi-directional flexibility'), which makes Salishan languages no different from other omnipredicative languages such as Arabic and Nahuatl, which have a clear lexical noun-verb distinction.

Beck does concede, however, that the Lushootseed argument ti ʔux̌ʷ ('the one who goes', shown in example sentence (1b) above) does represent an example of an unmarked 'verb' used as an argument and that further research may potentially substantiate Dale Kinkade's 1983 position that all Salishan content words are essentially 'verbs' (such as ʔux̌ʷ 'goes' and sbiaw 'is a coyote') and that the use of any content word as an argument involves an underlying relative clause. For example, with the determiner ti translated as 'that which', the arguments ti ʔux̌ʷ and ti sbiaw would be most literally translated as 'that which goes' and 'that which is a coyote' respectively.[13][14][15]

Historical linguistics

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There are twenty-three languages in the Salishan language family. They occupy the Pacific Northwest, with all but two of them being concentrated together in a single large area. It is clear that these languages are related, but it's difficult to track the development of each because their histories are so interwoven. The different speech communities have interacted a great deal, making it nearly impossible to decipher the influences of varying dialects and languages on one another. However, there are several trends and patterns that can be historically traced to generalize the development of the Salishan languages over the years.

The variation between the Salishan languages seems to depend on two main factors: the distance between speech communities and the geographic barriers between them. The diversity between the languages corresponds directly to the distance between them. Closer proximity often entails more contact between speakers, and more linguistic similarities are the result. Geographic barriers like mountains impede contact, so two communities that are relatively close together may still vary considerably in their language use if there is a mountain separating them.

The rate of change between neighboring Salishan languages often depends on their environments. If for some reason two communities diverge, their adaptation to a new environment can separate them linguistically from each other. The need to create names for tools, animals, and plants creates an array of new vocabulary that divides speech communities. However, these new names may come from borrowing from neighboring languages, in which case two languages or dialects can grow more alike rather than apart. Interactions with outside influences through trade and intermarriage often result in language change as well.

Some cultural elements are more resilient to language change, namely, religion and folklore. Salishan language communities that have demonstrated change in technology and environmental vocabulary have often remained more consistent with their religious terminology. Religion and heavily ingrained cultural traditions are often regarded as sacred, and so are less likely to undergo any sort of change. Indeed, cognate lists between various Salishan languages show more similarities in religious terminology than they do in technology and environment vocabulary. Other categories with noticeable similarities include words for body parts, colors, and numbers. There would be little need to change such vocabulary, so it's more likely to remain the same despite other changes between languages. The Coast Salishan languages are less similar to each other than are the Interior Salishan languages, probably because the Coast communities have more access to outside influences.

Another example of language change in the Salishan language family is word taboo, which is a cultural expression of the belief in the power of words. Among the Coast languages, a person's name becomes a taboo word immediately following their death. This taboo is lifted when the name of the deceased is given to a new member of their lineage. In the meantime, the deceased person's name and words that are phonetically similar to the name are considered taboo and can only be expressed via descriptive phrases. In some cases these taboo words are permanently replaced by their chosen descriptive phrases, resulting in language change.

[edit]

Stanley Evans has written a series of crime fiction novels that use Salish lore and language.[clarification needed]

An episode of Stargate SG-1 ("Spirits", 2x13) features a culture of extraterrestrial humans loosely inspired by Pacific coastal First Nations culture, and who speak a language referred to as "ancient Salish".

Notes

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References

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Bibliography

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Salishan languages

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The Salishan languages constitute of approximately 23 Indigenous languages spoken by in the of , primarily along the and inland areas of the (Washington, , , and ) and southwestern (). These languages are classified into five main branches: Coola (a single isolate language, also known as ), Central Coast Salish (10 languages, including , , and Northern ), Tsamosan (4 languages, such as Quinault and Cowlitz), Tillamook (1 language), and Interior Salish (7 languages, including Thompson, Shuswap, and Salish-Spokane-Kalispel). Notable for their elaborate consonant inventories—often featuring ejectives, glottalized resonants, and lateral obstruents—alongside a simple four-vowel system (/i, ə, a, u/), the Salishan languages exhibit agglutinative and polysynthetic morphology, extensive use of reduplication for grammatical functions like pluralization and diminutives, and predominantly verb-initial word order (VSO or VOS). They are part of the broader linguistic area, sharing areal features with neighboring language families, and some analyses suggest a potential lack of a clear noun-verb distinction in their grammars. The surviving Salishan languages are all endangered or moribund, with fluent speakers predominantly over 60 years old; in alone, 5,305 people reported some knowledge in the 2021 census, but only about 1,095 speak it as a first language, while U.S. estimates indicate fewer than 3,000 total speakers across the family, concentrated in the Interior Salish branch. Revitalization efforts, including community language programs and documentation projects, are active among Salish communities to preserve these languages.

Overview

Definition and scope

The Salishan languages constitute a family of approximately 23 indigenous languages spoken primarily in the region of , encompassing parts of in and the states of Washington, , , and in the United States. This family, also referred to as the Salish or Salishan stock in some classificatory contexts, represents a distinct genetic grouping within the broader landscape of indigenous languages. The languages are indigenous to the coastal and interior areas of this region, reflecting a deep historical presence among Salish-speaking peoples. The recognition of Salishan as a distinct language family emerged in the 19th century amid early European explorations and missionary activities, with systematic classification advancing through comparative linguistic work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Key early contributions came from anthropologists and linguists such as Franz Boas, who conducted fieldwork and published influential comparative analyses, including studies on sound shifts across Salishan dialects that solidified the family's internal coherence. Boas' efforts, building on prior lexical comparisons, helped establish Salishan as a cohesive unit separate from neighboring families like Wakashan or Penutian. Salishan languages are typologically notable for their polysynthetic structure, in which complex words incorporate multiple morphemes to express what might require full sentences in analytic languages, and for the debated absence of a robust lexical distinction between nouns and verbs, allowing roots to function flexibly as predicates or nominal elements. Documentation of these languages began in the early 1800s with traveler wordlists collected around 1810, progressing to more structured records through 19th-century missionary efforts, such as Jesuit priest Gregory Mengarini's grammar of Montana Salish in 1861 and his dictionary published between 1877 and 1879. By the mid-20th century, academic linguistics had intensified, leading to ongoing revitalization and descriptive studies hosted at annual International Conferences on Salish and Neighboring Languages since 1966.

Geographic distribution and speakers

The Salishan languages are indigenous to the of , encompassing southwestern in and the adjacent areas of Washington, , , and . This geographic range includes coastal zones along the and inland plateau , with Coast Salish varieties concentrated in the maritime environments of the and , while Interior Salish languages are spoken further east in valleys and mountainous . As of 2021, 5,305 in reported the to speak a Salish well enough to conduct a conversation, predominantly in , where they form a significant portion of the province's 34 First Nations languages; of these, 1,720 reported a Salish as their mother tongue. In the United States, speaker populations are smaller and more fragmented, contributing to an estimated total of approximately 3,000 speakers across both countries as of the early 2020s, though precise counts vary due to differing definitions of fluency and ongoing revitalization. Major languages include Halkomelem, with 1,410 reporting the to speak it well enough to converse (415 mother tongue speakers) primarily in the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island regions, and Secwepemctsín (Shuswap), with 1,090 such speakers (420 mother tongue) in central . Other notable varieties, such as Nsyilxcən (Okanagan) with 710 speakers able to converse (240 mother tongue) and St'át'imcets with 595 (125 mother tongue), each have several hundred such speakers in interior valleys. Speakers are distributed across rural Indigenous communities and reserves, where traditional territories remain central to cultural practice, but a substantial diaspora exists in urban centers. In cities like Vancouver and Seattle, which host large Indigenous populations, many Salishan speakers and learners engage in community programs amid broader urbanization trends affecting First Nations and Native American peoples. The current speaker populations reflect a sharp decline from pre-colonial times, when Salish-speaking populations were much larger, driven by 19th- and 20th-century colonial policies such as residential schools and language suppression laws that prohibited Indigenous language use, leading to intergenerational transmission loss.

Classification

Internal branches

The Salishan consists of 23 languages divided into five primary internal branches: (also known as Bella Coola), Central Salish, Interior Salish, Tsamosan, and Tillamook. This , based on shared phonological, morphological, and lexical features, reflects degrees of and mutual intelligibility, with closer relations within branches and subgroups. forms a distinct one-language branch, often considered an isolate within the family due to its significant phonological divergences, such as the presence of glottalized resonants absent in other branches. Central Salish, comprising about ten languages spoken primarily along the Pacific coast in British Columbia and Washington, forms a dialect continuum with varying mutual intelligibility between adjacent varieties. Key languages include Comox (Sliammon), Sechelt, Squamish, Halkomelem (with Northern, Island, and Downriver dialects), Northern Straits (including Saanich and Songish), Klallam, Nooksack, Lushootseed (Northern and Southern varieties), and Twana; Pentlatch is extinct. Subgroups show a north-to-south progression: Northern (Comox, Pentlatch, Sechelt), Central (Squamish, Halkomelem, Northern Straits, Klallam, Nooksack), and Southern (Lushootseed, Twana), where neighboring dialects like Island Halkomelem and Northern Straits exhibit high mutual intelligibility due to historical contact. Among these, Klallam became extinct in 2014 with the death of its last fluent speaker, while Nooksack and Twana are also extinct. Interior Salish, the largest with seven languages, is subdivided into Northern and Southern groups, showing moderate within subgroups but greater between them. The Northern Interior Salish includes , Thompson (), and Shuswap (Secwepemctsín), which form a close-knit cluster with shared morphological patterns like uniform applicative suffixes. The Southern Interior Salish encompasses Colville-Okanagan, Columbian ( Salish, also known as Séliš), Coeur d'Alene (Snchitsu'umshtsn), and Kalispel-Spokane (Salish), where the latter three are often treated as dialects of a single language due to high mutual intelligibility and minimal lexical differences. All Interior Salish languages remain extant, though with few fluent speakers. Tsamosan, a branch of four closely related languages once spoken in western Washington, exhibits strong internal coherence but is now entirely extinct. It includes Upper Chehalis, Lower Chehalis, Cowlitz, and Quinault, with the last fluent speakers passing away by the late 20th century; these languages show phonological variations, such as distinct reflexes of proto-Salishan consonants, but shared syntactic traits like complex applicative morphology. Tillamook, a single-language branch spoken in northwestern Oregon, is extinct since 1972 with the death of its last fluent speaker, Minnie Scovell. It diverges notably from other branches in phonology, lacking certain glottalized sounds common in Central and Interior Salish, and represents an early split in the family tree. A text-based representation of the Salishan family tree highlights this hierarchical structure and relative divergence:
  • Salishan
    • Nuxalk (Bella Coola)
    • Central Salish (dialect continuum)
      • Northern: Comox, Sechelt, Pentlatch (extinct)
      • Central: Squamish, Halkomelem, Northern Straits, Klallam (extinct 2014), Nooksack (extinct)
      • Southern: Lushootseed, Twana (extinct)
    • Interior Salish
      • Northern: Lillooet, Thompson, Shuswap
      • Southern: Colville-Okanagan, Columbian, Coeur d'Alene, Kalispel-Spokane (dialect cluster)
    • Tsamosan (all extinct): Upper Chehalis, Lower Chehalis, Cowlitz, Quinault
    • Tillamook (extinct 1972)
This schema, derived from comparative vocabulary and phonological reconstruction, underscores the family's diversification along coastal and interior divides, with Coast Salish branches (Central, Tsamosan, Tillamook, Nuxalk) showing ties to Pacific Northwest ecologies.

Genetic relationships

The Salishan languages form a distinct genetic stock comprising approximately 23 languages spoken in the Pacific Northwest of North America, with no confirmed external affiliations to other language families despite several historical proposals. While hypotheses have suggested distant relations to neighboring families such as Algonquian and Wakashan, these lack sufficient evidence of regular sound correspondences or shared innovations to establish genetic ties, leading most contemporary linguists to treat Salishan as an isolate family within the North American context. One prominent early proposal was the Mosan hypothesis, advanced by Edward Sapir in the 1920s, which posited a genetic link between Salishan, Wakashan, and the now-extinct Chimakuan languages based on typological similarities like complex consonant inventories and polysynthetic morphology, as well as scattered lexical resemblances. Morris Swadesh further developed this idea in the 1950s, citing over 100 potential cognates and arguing that such structural parallels were unlikely to result from borrowing alone. However, subsequent analyses have attributed these features primarily to prolonged language contact in the Northwest Sprachbund rather than common ancestry, as the proposed cognates show irregular sound patterns and no systematic phonological correspondences; the hypothesis is now widely rejected. Proposals linking Salishan to , often extending the Mosan framework into a broader Algonquian-Wakashan or Algonkian-Mosan macrofamily, have also been explored, drawing on shared items (e.g., terms for body parts or numerals) and certain grammatical quirks like marking. For instance, Peter Bakker (2006) revisited potential connections, noting archaeological of cultural interactions between Algonquian and Salishan speakers, but concluded that resemblances are more plausibly explained by than genetic due to the absence of regular laws. Similarly, inclusions of Salishan in the controversial Penutian macrofamily—proposed in broader Amerind classifications by (1987)—have been dismissed by specialists for relying on lexical without rigorous historical , failing to demonstrate verifiable relationships. In modern scholarship, Salishan is regarded as a self-contained family with external similarities attributable to areal diffusion rather than deep genetic ties, underscoring the challenges of reconstructing distant relationships in the diverse linguistic landscape of the Pacific Northwest.

Linguistic characteristics

Phonology

Salishan languages are renowned for their intricate phonological systems, particularly their expansive consonant inventories and relatively modest vowel sets. Consonant systems commonly range from 30 to 40 phonemes, incorporating ejective (glottalized) stops such as /p'/, /t'/, /ts'/, /k'/, /q'/, and their labialized counterparts like /kʷ'/; uvulars including /q/ and /χ/; lateral obstruents such as the fricative /ɬ/ and affricate /tɬ'/; and glides or resonants that may glottalize in certain languages, e.g., /m'/, /n'/, /l'/, /w'/. These inventories also feature labialized dorsals (/kʷ/, /xʷ/) and, in some cases, pharyngeal consonants (/ħ/, /ʕ/), contributing to highly complex clusters that can form entire words without intervening vowels, as seen in forms like Montana Salish sqʷłxʷc 'deer'. Vowel systems in Salishan languages are typically sparse, featuring a simple four-vowel system /i, ə, a, u/ that functions phonemically, though schwa often appears epenthetically in unstressed positions. Phonemic distinctions appear in several languages (e.g., long vs. short /i/), enhancing contrast, though schwa rarely lengthens. Variation exists across the ; for instance, like Saanich employ four vowels (/i, e, a, ə/), while Interior Salish languages such as Montana Salish include five full vowels (/i, e, a, o, u/) plus schwa. Nuxalk, an isolate branch, has a three-vowel system /i, a, u/ with phonemic and allophonic variations including and . Suprasegmental features include variable stress patterns, often realized through pitch and intensity on the initial or penultimate syllable, depending on morphological structure. Reduplication is a hallmark prosodic process, frequently marking plurality (distributive) via CV-copying, as in Montana Salish qeˇc’uˇc’úw 'all gone one at a time' from qeˇc’úw 'all gone together', or diminutives with CV- prefixes. These patterns underscore phonology's integration with morphology, enabling concise expression of grammatical nuances like repetition or attenuation. Branch-specific phonological traits highlight family diversity: Coast Salish languages often include pharyngeals and exhibit dense lateral series, contributing to their distinctive obstruent richness, whereas Interior Salish systems tend toward simpler vowel contrasts but maintain comparable consonant complexity, with frequent glottalized resonants. This variation supports robust phonotactics that accommodate the languages' predicate-nominal fluidity without strict categorial phoneme restrictions.

Morphology and nounlessness

Salishan languages exhibit a polysynthetic morphology, characterized by extensive affixation and noun incorporation that allow single words to convey intricate semantic and grammatical information. This structure enables the integration of lexical and functional elements into verbs, often obviating the need for separate words. For example, in Montana Salish, the complex form qʷoʔc-taXʷl-m-nt-cʔut-m-nt-m translates to "they came up to me," featuring a single prefix for direction and multiple suffixes marking transitivity, person, and aspect. Noun incorporation is particularly prominent through lexical suffixes, which are bound forms derived from nouns denoting body parts, locations, or objects; these suffixes attach to verb roots to specify incorporated elements. In Hul'q'umi'num', the verb lhuqw'tssum "clap your hands" incorporates the lexical suffix -tsus "hand" into the root for clapping, illustrating how incorporation reduces valency while enriching the verb's meaning. Similarly, concepts like "the house is burning" can be expressed via a verb root for "burn" combined with the lexical suffix for "house," such as -uxʷ in various Salishan languages, forming a single predicate without an independent noun. A hallmark of Salishan morphology is nounlessness, the absence of a dedicated lexical category for nouns; instead, roots are inherently predicative and can shift between nominal and verbal functions based on syntactic position and affixes. This flexibility means that what might be a noun in other languages functions as a verb stem here, with nominal uses often requiring determiners or predicative framing rather than inherent nominal morphology. Possession, for instance, is handled predicatively, as in constructions equating "X's Y" to "Y is with/of X" without genitive marking on a noun phrase. Linguists such as Kinkade (1983) argue that this lack of a formal noun-verb distinction is systematic across the family, though some roots show subtle behavioral differences in distribution; Kuipers (1968) similarly highlights the predicative nature of all roots in Straits Salish. This nounless system contrasts with Indo-European languages, prioritizing verbal predication and incorporation over discrete nominal categories, which aligns with the family's overall verb-centered grammar. Affixation in Salishan languages is asymmetric, with a predominance of suffixes over prefixes, though both contribute to valency changes, aspect, and modality. Prefixes typically encode spatial or temporal notions, such as directionals (e.g., locative prefixes indicating "up" or "toward") or inceptives like ʔə- marking the onset of an event. Suffixes are more diverse, including transitivizers that shift verbs from intransitive to transitive, causatives that add an agent causer, and applicatives that introduce beneficiaries or locations. Causative suffixes, often -s or -st, derive forms like "make eat" from "eat," emphasizing control over the event. To illustrate transitivity shifts, consider the root for "eat" across Salishan languages, which is typically intransitive and requires suffixation for transitive use. In Séliš-Ql'ispé (Interior Salish), the root ʔíɫn means "eat" (intransitive), but transitive paradigms add control or non-control suffixes: ʔíɫn-t "eat it" (with a patient object under agent control) or ʔíɫn-x for non-control objects like liquids. In Halkomelem (Central Coast Salish), the root x̌las "eat, dine" (intransitive) becomes x̌las-t "eat it" in transitive contexts, with further suffixes like -m for first-person subject: x̌las-t-m "I eat it." These paradigms demonstrate how morphology encodes not just transitivity but also agentivity and object type, often resulting in paradigm sets of 10-20 forms per root depending on person and control. Reduplication, a morphological process linked to plurality or distribution (e.g., ʔíɫn-ʔíɫn "eat repeatedly"), may interact with these affixes to modify aspect without altering core valency.

Syntax

Salishan languages are predominantly predicate-initial, with verb-subject-object (VSO) or verb-object-subject (VOS) as the basic word order in simple clauses, though this order exhibits considerable flexibility owing to the languages' rich verbal morphology that cross-references arguments. In Halkomelem, a Central Salish language, multi-verb serial constructions typically follow a VSVO pattern when two noun phrases are overt, as in ni’ thuytus tthu swiw’lus yuq’utus tthu shuptun ('the boy fixed [and] sharpened the knife'), where the shared subject intervenes between verbs to avoid ambiguity. This flexibility allows alternative orders like VVSO or VVOS in elicitation contexts, but corpus data favor contiguous predicate-initial arrangements, reflecting pragmatic and morphological constraints rather than rigid syntax. Valency in Salishan languages is dynamically marked through applicative suffixes that promote oblique arguments (such as beneficiaries or locations) to core object status, increasing the verb's valence, and antipassive suffixes that demote the patient to an oblique, reducing valence. Relational applicatives, derived from intransitive bases, introduce a new core argument, while redirective applicatives on transitive bases reorient the original object to oblique status; for example, in Halkomelem, the root č'əxʷ 'give' combines with the relational suffix -m to form č'əxʷ-m 'give to (benefactive)', allowing the beneficiary to serve as direct object: ni’ č'əxʷ-m-t-əs tthu sqʷəm ('I gave the baby [something]'). Antipassives, marked by suffixes like -cut in Interior Salish, suppress the patient and promote the agent to absolutive, as in Montana Salish q’íq’it-cut-m 's/he is naming (something)', where the patient is expressed obliquely if at all. These mechanisms enable nuanced argument structure adjustments without relying on case marking. Negation across Salishan languages displays cross-linguistic variation, with three primary strategies: preverbal particles that scope over the clause, suffixal negation on verbs or auxiliaries, and lexical suppletion where negative meanings employ distinct roots rather than affixes. Preverbal particles, such as wał in St'át'imcets, precede the verb and often co-occur with conjunctive clitics in embedded contexts; suffixal negation appears in forms like the -ł in Montana Salish imperatives (q’el-ł-mš 'don't sing!'); and suppletion is evident in pairs like Klallam ʔiɬ 'eat' versus səłxʷ 'not eat', treating negation as a lexical replacement. These patterns interact with clause embedding, where negation frequently triggers nominalized or conjunctive structures. Clause types in Salishan languages lack articles and grammatical gender, relying instead on determiners like kʷθə for deixis and nominalization for subordination. Relative clauses are typically formed through predicate or clausal nominalization with the prefix s-, which functions as a relative pronoun or complementizer, yielding headless or externally headed constructions; in Halkomelem, for instance, kʷ s-tíl-əm-s means 'what he sang/will sing', where s- nominalizes the verb and merges as an unsaturated theme in NP structure. This nominalization strategy extends to embedded arguments, distinguishing indicative matrix clauses (with free-standing predicates) from conjunctive (for conditionals and questions) and nominalized types, without dedicated relative pronouns or internal-headed relatives.

Historical development

Proto-Salishan reconstruction

The reconstruction of Proto-Salishan, the hypothetical of the Salishan language family, relies on the applied to the , , of its languages. Major contributions include M. Dale Kinkade's extensive work on etymologies and morphological reconstructions from the through the , Aert H. Kuipers' phonological analyses in the , Paul D. Kroeber's 1999 study on , and Brent D. Galloway's examinations of sound correspondences in Central Salish branches. These efforts have established a core of Proto-Salishan forms, though challenges persist due to low retention rates of basic vocabulary across branches, limiting deeper time-depth reconstructions beyond approximately 5,000 years. In the lexicon, over 300 Proto-Salishan roots have been proposed, often incorporating lexical suffixes that denote semantic categories like body parts or locations. A representative example is *slqʷaʔl 'dog', reflected in forms such as Lillooet slqʷél and Nlaka'pamux sqʷéyl, with the initial *sl- cluster and glottalized labialized velar showing regular correspondences across Interior Salish languages. Kinkade's etymological compilations, building on earlier lists by Franz Boas, emphasize such roots for concrete nouns and verbs, while color terms like *c̕əq' 'red' illustrate Proto-Salishan's rich system of nearly 90 color-related roots. Sound laws underpin these reconstructions; for instance, Kuipers reconstructed a distinction between plain and retracted resonants (*l vs. *ł, *r vs. *ł̣), with *ł developing into uvulars in some branches and velars in others, as seen in doublets like *kəł vs. *qəł 'back of neck'. In Coast Salish branches, Proto-Salishan *p remains /p/, but *k shifts to /č/ in Central Salish (e.g., Proto-Salish *kʷən to Halkomelem čən 'go'), a change Galloway dated to post-Proto-Salish but pre-Proto-Central Salish. Grammatical reconstructions focus on the verb-centric morphology typical of Salishan languages, with no dedicated nouns and heavy reliance on predicates. Kinkade reconstructed an aspectual system contrasting perfective (unmarked or with ablaut) and imperfective (marked by glottal infix -ʔ- or C1Y-reduplication), as in Proto-Salish *Ø- root -ə for 3sg present perfective forms, evolving into diverse markers like Interior Salish reduplication for ongoing actions. Verb templates included slots for subject agreement (e.g., *Ø- for 3sg, *n- for 1sg), root, and suffixes for control, causation, or applicatives like *-xi 'redirective' (benefactive/malefactive). Kroeber's syntactic work reconstructs predicate-initial word order (VSO) and complex subordinate clauses, such as relative clauses using nominalizing prefixes *s- and possessive affixes for subjects (e.g., *s- root -cut 'the one who V-ed'), with oblique roles marked by suffixes like *-m 'with'. Applicative suffixes, reconstructed by Kinkade as relational *-t and redirective *-xi, allowed valence increases in verbs, appearing between the root and aspect markers. These features highlight Proto-Salishan's polysynthetic nature, where verbs encoded full propositions. Reconstruction faces hurdles from uneven ; basic cognates occur in only about 20-30% of items across all branches, complicating verification beyond major divisions like Interior vs. Coast Salish. Contact with non-Salishan neighbors may have obscured earlier forms, yet the comparative basis from divergent languages like Nuxalk (Bella Coola) supports robust proto-forms for core and . Ongoing work by scholars like Kinkade and Galloway refines these through branch-specific innovations, such as Central Salish velar fronting.

Contact influences and evolution

Salishan languages have experienced lexical borrowing from neighboring , particularly in areas of close contact along the coast. For instance, Coola (), an isolate within the Salishan , shows of borrowing aspects of the complex nominal deictic from adjacent North Wakashan languages like , reflecting areal in spatial and demonstratives. Similarly, some numerals in Tsamosan Salish varieties exhibit parallels with Wakashan , suggesting historical exchange during pre-contact and migration. Contact with the introduced a number of loanwords into Salishan languages, primarily terms related to and social practices. Examples include adaptations of Jargon words for and ceremonies, such as forms derived from "" (originally from pačlač but disseminated via the ), which entered Salishan lexicons to denote gift-giving feasts in coastal communities. Borrowing from was relatively sparse compared to its influence on English, but it facilitated intercultural exchange in the . Post-contact evolution involved shifts due to European languages, with English loanwords entering Salishan varieties for concepts absent in traditional lifeways, especially technology and modern objects. In languages like Lushootseed, English terms for items such as machinery and vehicles were incorporated, often with phonological adaptation, while some communities calqued equivalents (e.g., descriptive compounds for "car" evoking its wheeled motion). These borrowings remain uncommon overall, as Salishan speakers frequently innovated native terms using morphological processes. Internal diachronic changes arose from geographic divergence, particularly following ancestral migrations that separated Coast and Interior branches around 3,000–5,000 years ago. Such variations highlight how isolation and adaptation to diverse environments drove phonological evolution post-Proto-Salishan. Documentation of Salishan languages accelerated in the 20th century through fieldwork by key linguists, enabling the development of practical orthographies. Pioneers like Franz Boas conducted early surveys in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, followed by extensive work from M. Dale Kinkade and Sarah G. Thomason in the mid-to-late century, who recorded vocabularies, grammars, and texts across multiple varieties. These efforts adapted the North American Phonetic Alphabet (a modified International Phonetic Alphabet variant) for transcription, facilitating standardized writing systems that incorporated Roman letters for glottalized consonants and uvulars, though practical orthographies later simplified for community use.

Contemporary status

Endangered languages

The Salishan language family encompasses approximately 23 languages, all classified by UNESCO as endangered, with the majority rated as critically endangered due to severely limited speaker bases and lack of intergenerational transmission. Over 10 languages within the family are now extinct or dormant, including Pentlatch (last fluent speaker died in 1940), Lower Chehalis (last fluent speaker in the 1990s), Upper Chehalis (last fluent speaker in 2001), Klallam (last fluent speaker in 2014), Tillamook, Nooksack, Twana, and Cowlitz. Key factors contributing to the endangerment of surviving Salishan languages include the historical impacts of colonial policies such as Canadian and U.S. residential schools, which forcibly suppressed Indigenous language use among children from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, leading to widespread language loss. Urbanization and economic pressures have further accelerated shift to dominant languages like English, disrupting community-based transmission, while isolation in rural or reserve areas limits access to speakers for younger generations. For instance, Northern Straits Salish has approximately 7 fluent speakers across dialects as of 2024, with no fluent speakers remaining in the Semiahmoo dialect, illustrating the acute vulnerability in smaller subgroups. Demographically, fluent speakers of Salishan languages are predominantly elderly, with the over 60 years old and many exceeding 80, according to surveys and ; semi-speakers, who have partial proficiency, tend to fall in the 40-50 age range but rarely transmit full fluency to children. Statistics Canada reports an 40 for all Salish speakers (including learners) in 2021, rising to 50 for mother-tongue speakers, underscoring the aging profile and transmission gap. In terms of comparative vitality, Nuxalk (Bella Coola) fares slightly better than many others, with 4 fluent first-language speakers and over 80 conversational users as of 2024, bolstered by localized community initiatives, in contrast to the near-extinct Tsamosan branch (e.g., Quinault extinct since 1996, Cowlitz dormant). Geographic isolation in coastal and interior regions exacerbates these disparities, as scattered populations hinder collective efforts.

Revitalization efforts

Revitalization efforts for Salishan languages focus on community-driven initiatives to counteract their endangered status and preserve . These programs emphasize immersive learning, intergenerational transmission, and technological tools to foster new speakers among indigenous communities in the . Community programs play a central , with immersion schools providing early exposure to Salishan languages. The Salish School of Spokane operates a language nest for children under seven, aiming to establish Interior Salish as a through daily immersion and cultural activities, while also offering for adults with fluent elders. Similarly, the Tulalip Tribes' Lushootseed Department delivers structured immersion sessions—15 minutes four times weekly for infants and toddlers, and 30 minutes for preschoolers—to build conversational proficiency before children enter formal schooling. The Puyallup Tribe's Language Program integrates Lushootseed into daily life, promoting its use in homes and conversations to create fluent speakers. Digital resources have expanded access to Salishan languages, enabling self-directed learning and community sharing. FirstVoices hosts comprehensive online dictionaries for Halq'eméylem (Halkomelem), including over 5,000 words, nearly 5,000 phrases, 19 songs, and 30 stories, with audio recordings and a mobile app for flashcards and browsing on iOS, Android, and other devices. The platform also supports Nuxalk with similar multimedia content to aid revitalization. Academic collaborations bolster these efforts through training and research. The University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO)'s Interior Salishan Studies Centre unites students, scholars, and community members to document, teach, and revive Interior Salishan languages, addressing colonial impacts and supporting reconciliation. UBCO's nsyilxcən (Syilx) Language Fluency Program, approved under the University Act of British Columbia, trains fluent speakers; its first graduating class was in 2023, with the third cohort graduating in 2025, serving as a model for broader indigenous language revitalization. Notable recent progress includes the 2023 declaration of Pentlatch (pentl'ach) as a living language following community revitalization, with semi-speakers and learners emerging. Additionally, UBC Okanagan launched the first cohort of the Bachelor of Secwépemc Language Fluency program in 2025. These initiatives have yielded measurable progress in some communities. For Lushootseed, the number of speakers—defined as those using the language at least an hour daily—increased from about five in 2014 to 472 in 2022, driven by immersion houses and school programs.

Cultural significance

Role in indigenous cultures

Salishan languages play a central role in encoding cultural knowledge essential to indigenous ecologies and social structures. For instance, Central Salish languages feature a rich lexicon for salmon, with distinct terms for various species and life stages that reflect intimate environmental relationships and traditional fishing practices shaped by intermarriage and trade. Similarly, lexical suffixes in Salishan verbs incorporate kinship relations, allowing speakers to express familial ties and social obligations directly within verbal constructions, thereby embedding relational dynamics into everyday communication. These languages are to oral traditions that preserve and transmit cultural narratives. In Coast Salish communities, storytelling, songs, and chants during ceremonies such as potlatches convey histories, moral teachings, and supernatural elements, with verbal formulae holding transformative power equivalent to ritual acts. Potlatch narratives, delivered in Salishan tongues, validate family prestige and responsibilities, reinforcing communal bonds through performed oratory. Language ties deeply to Salish identity and sovereignty, serving as a marker of territorial and cultural autonomy. Coast Salish place names, such as ÁLEṈENEȻ for homeland in W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich), encode ancestral knowledge and lived experiences, fostering reconnection to land amid colonial disruption. In art, Coast Salish creators integrate linguistic elements into public works, like motifs inspired by place names, to affirm ongoing presence and self-determination in shared spaces. Salishan languages have appeared sporadically in film and television, often through indigenous-led productions that highlight cultural preservation. The 1998 film Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre and based on stories by Spokane-Coeur d'Alene author Sherman Alexie, is set on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation and explores themes of Native identity, including the struggle to maintain indigenous languages like Coeur d'Alene, a Southern Interior Salishan tongue. More recently, the 2022 short film Strongest at the End of the World, produced by Spokane Tribe member Ryan Abrahamson, is entirely in the Salish language and depicts a pre-colonial supernatural thriller, premiering at the Spokane Film Festival to promote linguistic revitalization. In literature, Salishan elements are incorporated through thematic discussions of language loss and revival, as well as direct references to vocabulary and lore. Sherman Alexie's memoir You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017) reflects on his mother's fluency in Salish and the intergenerational silence around the language in Spokane-Coeur d'Alene families, underscoring its cultural significance amid assimilation pressures. Similarly, the Silas Seaweed mystery series by Stanley Evans (2005–present) features a Coast Salish detective navigating Victoria, British Columbia, with narratives drawing on Salish cultural practices, place names, and linguistic elements to blend crime fiction with indigenous perspectives. Contemporary Coast Salish author Sasha LaPointe's essay collection Thunder Song (2024) weaves personal reflections on her Nooksack heritage, including the role of Salishan languages in reclaiming identity against colonial erasure. Music provides another avenue for Salishan representation, particularly through hip-hop and community events that integrate language into modern genres. Blackfeet-Salish rapper Shadow Devereaux, performing as Foreshadow, released the album Perfect Timing in 2025, which incorporates indigenous words and themes to celebrate indigenous identity and encourage language learning among youth on the Flathead Reservation. Annual Salish karaoke contests in the Pacific Northwest adapt popular songs into the language to engage younger generations, turning entertainment into a tool for fluency. Salishan place names permeate via and in the , evoking indigenous heritage without linguistic use. Names like (derived from Chief Sealth's name, a Central Salishan ) and Chelan (Salish for "deep water") appear in travel media, , and set in the , subtly embedding Salishan into mainstream narratives. Despite these positive depictions, challenges persist in non-indigenous media, where Salishan languages and cultures are often oversimplified or stereotyped. Salish elder Arlee has criticized Hollywood for misrepresenting tribal traditions, such as conflating diverse Salishan practices into generic "Native" tropes that ignore linguistic nuances and perpetuate outdated images. Educational media and documentaries sometimes reduce Salishan languages to exotic phrases without , contributing to broader indigenous in popular .

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