Takelma /təˈkɛlmə/ is the language that was spoken by the Latgawa and Takelma peoples and the Cow Creek band of Upper Umpqua, in Oregon, United States. The language was extensively described by the German-American linguist Edward Sapir in his graduate thesis, The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon (1912). Sapir's grammar together with his Takelma Texts (1909) are the main sources of information on the language. Both are based on work carried out in 1906 with language consultant Frances Johnson (Takelma name Kʷìskʷasá:n), who lived on to become the last surviving fluent speaker. In 1934, with her death at the age of 99, the language became extinct. An English-Takelma dictionary is currently being created on the basis of printed sources with the aim of reviving the language.

The commonly used English name of the language is derived from Ta:-kɛlm-àʔn, the self-name of the Takelma people, which means "those dwelling along the Rogue River (Ta:-kɛlám)".

There were at least four Takelma dialects:

A few nouns are attested for all four dialects:

Takelma is accepted as one of the many language isolates of North America. Writing in 1909, Sapir stated that "the Takelma language represents one of the distinct linguistic stocks of North America". He later revised his opinion, and assigned Takelma to the hypothetical Penutian language family, a grouping that at present is not generally considered established. Over the years, several linguists have presented evidence which, in their view, linked Takelma to the other "Penutian" languages, in particular the Kalapuyan languages. A reexamination of the evidence by Tarpent and Kendall (1998, unpublished) however showed that purported lexical and grammatical similarities between Takelma and other languages were erroneous, and they concluded that Takelma is indeed an isolate.

Takelma has 22 phonemic consonants which occur in normal speech. In addition, there are two consonants of restricted use:

Two consonants do not occur in normal everyday speech: voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/ and voiceless alveopalatal fricative /ɕ/. In the narration of myths, /ɬ/ is the "grizzly-bear prefix" which can be prefixed to any word in the reported speech of the grizzly bear, symbolizing the animal's coarseness; and /ɕ/ is the "coyote prefix", prefixed to words in the reported speech of the coyote; thus /kʷìti/ "where?" (normal speech), /ɬkʷìti/ (grizzly bear speaking), /ɕkʷìti/ (coyote speaking).

Consonants /s/ and /ts’/ have optional alveopalatal allophones [ɕ] and [tɕ’], which occur mainly in word-initial position before a vowel, and intervocalically.