Quileute language
Extinct Chimakuan language in Washington state, US
title: "Quileute language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chimakuan-languages", "languages-of-the-united-states", "endangered-chimakuan-languages", "indigenous-languages-of-washington-(state)"] description: "Extinct Chimakuan language in Washington state, US" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quileute_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Extinct Chimakuan language in Washington state, US ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Quileute |
| nativename | kʷòʔlí·yot̓ísk̓ʷa |
| states | United States |
| region | Olympic Peninsula, Washington |
| ethnicity | 500 Quileute (2007) |
| extinct | 1999 |
| ref | e18 |
| familycolor | American |
| fam1 | Chimakuan |
| dia1 | Hoh |
| iso3 | qui |
| glotto | quil1240 |
| glottorefname | Quileute |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
| name = Quileute | nativename = kʷòʔlí·yot̓ísk̓ʷa | states = United States | region = Olympic Peninsula, Washington | ethnicity = 500 Quileute (2007) | extinct = 1999 | ref = e18 | familycolor = American | fam1 = Chimakuan | dia1 = Hoh | iso3 = qui | glotto = quil1240 | glottorefname = Quileute | notice = IPA | revived =
Quileute (; kʷòʔlí·yot̓ísk̓ʷa) is the language of the Quileute people, located on the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The language went extinct in 1999, though today there are several second-language speakers and the Quileute Nation is working to revitalize the language in daily life. Quileute is one of two Chimakuan languages, and was the last Chimakuan language spoken natively.
Quileute is famous for its lack of nasal sounds, such as , , or nasal vowels, an areal feature of Puget Sound. Quileute is polysynthetic and words can be quite long.
The name Quileute comes from kʷòʔlí·yot̓, the name of a village at La Push.
Use and revitalization efforts
There were ten elderly speakers in 1977, and "a few" in 1999.
The Quileute Nation is attempting to prevent the loss of the language by teaching it in the Quileute Tribal School using books written for the students by the tribal elders.
::quote "[In 2007], the Tribal Council set up a two-year Quileute Revitalization Project with the goal of encouraging the use of Quileute words and phrases in everyday village life. A basic vocabulary of greetings, questions, numbers, names of things, and ‘one-liners’ in Quileute were made available to tribal members and staff through informal classes, email and computer CDs."{{Cite web | title = Quileute Nation - Language | access-date = 2012-12-02 | url = http://www.quileutenation.org/culture/language | archive-date = 2013-06-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130621050516/http://www.quileutenation.org/culture/language | url-status = dead }} ::
Phonology
Quileute has three phonemic short vowels (written ‹a, i, o›) and four long vowels (written ‹a·, a̱·, i·, o·›). The vowels exhibit quite a bit of allophonic variation. accepts allophones ranging between a low of to a mid ; between and (rarely as high as ); and between and (rarely ). The long vowels are somewhat more stable: are realized mostly as .
Stress is usually penultimate, but not necessarily so. It was originally described by Manuel Andrade as having had a phonemic pitch accent whereby each long vowel can host one of four pitch contours. However, later research by Jay Powell has shown that Andrade had overdistinguished and that Quileute has a simpler accentual system whereby primary stress (accompanied by a higher pitch as in English) usually falls on the penultimate syllable and some words also harbor secondary stress on a different syllable.
Quileute is notable as having no nasal consonants, a feature shared with a few unrelated languages in its immediate vicinity, namely, Makah, Nitinaht, Lushootseed, and Twana. It has the following consonants (// and // are rare):
::data[format=table] | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | plain | lateral | plain | labialized | plain | labialized | Plosive | voiceless | ejective | voiced | Affricate | plain | ejective | Fricative | Approximant | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
The plain voiceless stops and affricates are slightly aspirated. After an accented long vowel in the first syllable, they are preceded by anticipatory pre-aspiration. So, e.g., ‹dí·ḳa› ‘smoke’ is realized as , and ‹t̓ƚó·pa› ‘blue, green’ is realized as . Analogously, an ejective following an accented long vowel anticipates pre-glottalization, so ‹ʔá·c̓hit› ‘rich, chief’ is realized as or even . In the same position, continuants (including and which descend from Proto-Chimakuan *m and *n) are lengthened. E.g., ‹bí·baʔa·› ‘blind’ is realized as and ‹ʔí·ƚiƚ› ‘key’ as .
Orthography
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Quileute_Alphabet.tif" caption="Quileute alphabet chart"] ::
Quileute uses an alphabet developed in 1969 by the Quileute Culture Committee. The accents ◌́ and ◌̀ are used to mark stress, and a dot (·) is used to mark a long vowel.
Morphology
Quileute features a prefix system that changes depending on the physical characteristics of the person being spoken of, the speaker, or rarely the person being addressed. When speaking of a cross-eyed person, is prefixed to each word. When speaking of a hunchback, the prefix is used. Additional prefixes are also used for short men (), "funny people" (), and people that have difficulty walking ().
References
Bibliography
References
- Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh
- {{Harvard citation no brackets. Woodruff. Powell. 2008
- {{harvnb. Mithun. 2001
- Mithun, ''The Languages of Native North America''
- Powell, Jay V.. (1976). "Quileute Dictionary". Northwest Anthropological Research Notes.
- Powell, Jay V.. (1990). "Northwest Coast". Handbook of North American Indians.
- {{harvnb. Mithun. 2001
- Powell, James V.. (1974). "Proto-Chimakuan: Materials for a Reconstruction". Working Papers in Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaiʻi.
- {{Harvard citation no brackets. Woodruff. Powell. 2008
- (December 1920). "Abnormal Types of Speech in Quileute". [[International Journal of American Linguistics]].
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