Wakashan is one of the world's primary language families, with no demonstrated relationship to any other family, spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island and in the northwestern Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. Its seven languages split into a Northern (Kwakiutlan) and a Southern (Nootkan) branch, and all are severely endangered: Kwak'wala had 235 speakers as of 2000, Nuu-chah-nulth about 510 as of 2005, and Haisla and Heiltsuk-Oowekyala only around 200 each, while Makah's last fully fluent first-language speaker died in 2002. Wakashan languages are known for unusually large consonant inventories that frequently occur in complex clusters, a feature typical of the languages of the Northwest Coast.
Facts
RegionBritish Columbia (around and on Vancouver Island) and the northwestern Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 1 Speaker Count Connections
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia: Wakashan Languages
Source Wikipedia: Wakashan Languages
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Wakashan Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction, first paragraph
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.
- Open Questions: How many speakers do the Wakashan languages total today?
- Open Questions: Has a Proto-Wakashan proto-language been securely reconstructed?
View the Source 2. Wakashan (Wikidata)
Wikimedia FoundationWikidata number of speakers (P1098) statement (EntityId 296757): 1000Quote, Wikidata number of speakers (P1098) statement (EntityId 296757): 1000
Wikidata item Q60069, property P1098 (number of speakers): 1000 (normal rank, non-deprecated)
Wikidata: Wakashan
Open Questions (2 open questions)
How many speakers do the Wakashan languages total today?
The surveyed Wikipedia treatment of the family gives only a 1909 ethnic-population count (2,070 Kwakiutl and 2,494 Nootka) rather than a current count of actual Wakashan speakers, and states no modern aggregate.
What would resolve this A published modern census or sociolinguistic survey reporting a current aggregate count of Wakashan-language speakers across all seven member languages.
Sociolinguistics and language documentation (Pacific Northwest Coast indigenous languages).Wikipedia: Wakashan Languages
Has a Proto-Wakashan proto-language been securely reconstructed?
The surveyed Wikipedia treatment covers the family's geographic distribution, contact history and a rejected Mosan macrofamily proposal, but does not state whether a Proto-Wakashan ancestral language has itself been reconstructed.
What would resolve this A specialist comparative-linguistics source (a Proto-Wakashan reconstruction paper or handbook chapter) stating whether, and how completely, a common Wakashan proto-language has been reconstructed.
Historical and comparative linguistics (Pacific Northwest Coast languages).Wikipedia: Wakashan Languages
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