Alsea

Alsea was a language spoken along the central Oregon coast of the United States by the Alsea and Yaquina peoples, and is generally treated as a language isolate, although some linguists have grouped it within a proposed Coast Oregon Penutian family. It consisted of two closely related varieties, Alsea proper and Yaquina, and scholars have debated whether these should be considered separate languages or dialects of one tongue. Its last recordings were made in 1942 by the linguist J. P. Harrington from its final fluent speaker, John Albert, who died in 1951; its sound system was unusually complex for the region, with 34 consonants including ejective and labialized sounds alongside just three vowels.