| Nativename | ƛʼpúlmixq |
|---|---|
| States | United States |
| Region | Southwestern Washington |
| Familycolor | salishan |
| Fam 1 | Salishan |
| Fam 2 | Coast |
| Fam 3 | Tsamosan |
| Fam 4 | Inland |
| Iso 3 | cow |
| Glotto | cowl1242 |
| Glottorefname | Cowlitz |
| Extinct | October 23, 1992, with the death of Emma Northover Mesplie; dormant by 1960s |
| Revived | revival efforts underway |
| Ethnicity | Lower Cowlitz people |
Cowlitz (Cowlitz: ƛʼpúlmixq),[1] also known as Cowlitz Salish,[2] is a Tsamosan language of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages. It was spoken by the Lower Cowlitz people of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and is spoken today by both Lower and Upper Cowlitz people. It went dormant in the 1960s. As of 2022, it is being revitalized by the Cowlitz Tribe in collaboration with the Language Conservancy.[3][2]
Dialects
Cowlitz had two dialects, with a dialectal opposition between k and x and t͡ʃ and ʃ. However, these dialects were poorly documented, due to the extinction of the language.[4]
Cowlitz people
The Cowlitz people were originally two distinct tribes: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz, sometimes called the Taidnapam. Only the Lower Cowlitz originally spoke Cowlitz Salish. The Upper Cowlitz spoke a Sahaptin language.[5]
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| median | sibilant | lateral | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | plain | p | t | ts | tʃ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | |
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | ||
| Fricative | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | |||
| Sonorant | plain | m | n | l | j | w | |||||
| glottalized | mˀ | nˀ | lˀ | jˀ | wˀ | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e eː | ə | oː |
| Open | a aː |
Orthography
| ʔ | a | b | c | cʼ | č | čʼ | d | e | ə | f | g | h | i | j | k | kʷ | kʼ | kʷʼ | l | lʼ | ɬ | ƛʼ | m | mʼ | n |
| nʼ | o | o | p | pʼ | q | qʷ | qʼ | qʷʼ | r | s | š | t | tʼ | u | v | w | wʼ | x | xʷ | x̣ | x̣ʷ | y | yʼ | z |
Vocabulary
Cowlitz is most similar to Lower Chehalis, another Tsamosan language, although it contains some oddities, such as the word for one, utsus (in contrast to the Lower Chehalis paw).
| English | Cowlitz |
|---|---|
| Lower Cowlitz people | sƛʼpúlmx |
| one (number) | ʔúcʼs |
| two | sáliʔ |
| three | káʔɬiʔ |
| four | mús |
| five | čílačš |
| to sing | sʔílnʼ |
| moon/sun | ɬukʷáɬ |
| dog | qáx̣aʔ |
| water | qálʔ |
| man | síɬmx |
| woman | kə́wɬ |
See also
References
- ^ "Cowlitz Coast Salish Dictionary". Cowlitz Salish Dictionary. Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ "Cowlitz Salish Language Learning". Cowlitz Salish. The Language Conservancy. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ Kauffman, Brennen (February 27, 2022). "Cowlitz Language Being Brought Back With Online Dictionary, Weekend Classes". The Chronicle. Archived January 24, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
- ^ Kinkade, M. Dale (October 1973). "The Alveopalatal Shift in Cowlitz Salish". International Journal of American Linguistics. 39 (4): 224–231. doi:10.1086/465270. ISSN 0020-7071
- ^ "Our Story". The Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ Kinkade, Marvin Dale (2004). Cowlitz dictionary and grammatical sketch. Missoula, MT: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana. pp. 219–224.
Further reading
- "Vocabulary Words in the Salishan Language Family". Native-Languages.org
- Kinkade, Dale (2004). Cowlitz Dictionary and Grammatical Sketch. Missoula: University of Montana Press. ISBN 9781879763180.