Wakashan languages

Wakashan languages

Infobox Language family
name=Wakashan
region=British Columbia, Canada
familycolor=American
family=One of the world's primary language families
child1=Northern Wakashan
*Haisla
*Kwak'wala
*Heiltsuk-Oowekyala
**Heiltsuk
**Oowekyala
child2=Southern Wakashan
*Makah
*Nitinaht
*Nuu-chah-nulth


map_caption=Pre-contact distribution of Wakashan languages

Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

As typical of the Northwest Coast, Wakashan languages have large consonant inventories—the consonants often occurring in complex clusters.

Family division

Wakashan consists of 7 languages:

I. Northern Wakashan: 1. Haisla (a.k.a. Xaʔislak’ala): 2. Kwak'wala (a.k.a. Kwakiutl, spoken by Southern Kwakiutl, Kwakwaka'wakw people): A. Heiltsuk-Oowekyala (a.k.a. Bella Bella):: 3. Heiltsuk:: 4. Oowekyala

II. Southern Wakashan: 5. Makah: 6. Nitinaht (a.k.a. Nitinat, Ditidaht, Southern Nootkan): 7. Nuu-chah-nulth (a.k.a. Nootka, Nutka, Aht, West Coast, T’aat’aaqsapa)

Further reading


* Liedtke, Stefan. Wakashan, Salishan and Penutian and Wider Connections Cognate Sets. "Linguistic data on diskette series, no. 09. M unchen: Lincom Europa,zv1995, 1995". ISBN 3929075245

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Algonquian-Wakashan languages — Algonquian Wakashan (also Almosan, Algonkian Mosan, Algonkin Wakashan) is a hypothetical language phylum composed of several established language families that was proposed by Edward Sapir in 1929. His proposal consists of the following:I. Algic… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Canada — Languages of Canada[1] Official language(s) English (58%) and French (22%) Indigenous language(s) Abenaki, A …   Wikipedia

  • Wakashan — Die Wakash Sprachen oder Wakashan Sprachen (Engl.:wakashan languages) sind eine indigene nordamerikanische Sprachfamilie, die sechs in Kanada in British Columbia und auf Vancouver Island gesprochene Sprachen und eine ausgestorbene Sprache (Makah) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wakashan-Sprachen — Die Wakash Sprachen oder Wakashan Sprachen (Engl.:wakashan languages) sind eine indigene nordamerikanische Sprachfamilie, die sechs in Kanada in British Columbia und auf Vancouver Island gesprochene Sprachen und eine ausgestorbene Sprache (Makah) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Languages of the United States — Official language(s) none Main language(s) English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo European 3.8%, Asian …   Wikipedia

  • Wakashan — [wä kash′ən, wä′kə shan΄] n. a family of North American Indian languages of British Columbia and Washington, including Nootka and Kwakiutl …   English World dictionary

  • Wakashan — noun 1. a member of one of the peoples in British Columbia and Washington who speak the Wakashan language • Hypernyms: ↑Indian, ↑American Indian, ↑Red Indian • Hyponyms: ↑Kwakiutl, ↑Nootka 2. a family of North American Indian languages of British …   Useful english dictionary

  • Wakashan language — noun a family of North American Indian languages of British Columbia and Washington • Syn: ↑Wakashan • Hypernyms: ↑Mosan • Hyponyms: ↑Kwakiutl, ↑Nootka …   Useful english dictionary

  • Wakashan — noun Etymology: Nootka wa•ka•š, interjection used as a shout of approval Date: circa 1895 a family of American Indian languages spoken in coastal areas of British Columbia and northwest Washington …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Wakashan — /wah kash euhn, waw keuh shan /, n. a family of American Indian languages spoken in British Columbia and Washington and including esp. Kwakiutl and Nootka. [1895; coined by J.W. Powell from Wakash, used as the name of a Nootka subgroup but orig.… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”