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Chimakuan

North American Language Families

The Chimakuan languages were a family of extinct languages spoken in northwestern Washington state on the Olympic Peninsula, by the Chimakum, Quileute and Hoh peoples. The family comprised two languages, Chemakum, extinct by the 1940s, and Quileute, which lost its last first-language speaker by 1999 though revitalization efforts continue; Quileute is notable for lacking nasal consonants entirely. The languages belonged to the Mosan sprachbund alongside the neighboring Wakashan family.

Facts
Region
Northwestern Washington state, United States, on the Olympic Peninsula, the historic territory of the Chimakum, Quileute and Hoh peoples. 1
Proto-Language Status
A Proto-Chimakuan phonological system, including its consonant inventory, vowel system and lexical stress, was reconstructed by James Powell (1974) by comparing the family's two attested languages, Chemakum and Quileute. 1
Partially Attested
Speaker Count
0 1
Both Chimakuan languages, Chemakum and Quileute, are extinct as first languages. Quileute has been the subject of a revitalization effort since the late twentieth century and is spoken today as a second language by a relatively small, unquantified number of the Quileute tribe.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Chimakuan Languages
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section, first sentence
    The Chimakuan languages are a group of extinct languages that were spoken in northwestern Washington state, United States, on the Olympic Peninsula.
  • Family division section, Quileute paragraph
    During the late 20th and early 21st centuries a revitalization effort began, and it is today spoken as a second language by a relatively small amount of the Quileute tribe
  • Phonology, Proto-Chimakuan subsection
    The Proto-Chimakuan sound system, as reconstructed by Powell, contained three vowels, long and short, and lexical stress
View the Source
Wikidata: Chimakuan
Wikidata Q1073088, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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