Upper Chinook, endonym Kiksht,[3] also known as Columbia Chinook, and Wasco-Wishram after its last surviving dialect, is a recently extinct language of the US Pacific Northwest. It had 69 speakers in 1990, of whom 7 were monolingual: five Wasco[4] and two Wishram. In 2001, there were five remaining speakers of Wasco.[5]
| Upper Chinook | |
|---|---|
| Kiksht | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Columbia River |
| Extinct | 11 July 2012, with the death of Gladys Thompson[1] |
| Revival | 270 (2009-2013)[2] |
Chinookan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wac |
| Glottolog | wasc1239 |
| ELP | Wasco-Wishram |
The last fully fluent speaker of Kiksht, Gladys Thompson, died in July 2012.[1] She had been honored for her work by the Oregon Legislature in 2007.[6][7][8] Two new speakers were teaching Kiksht at the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in 2006.[9] The Northwest Indian Language Institute of the University of Oregon formed a partnership to teach Kiksht and Numu in the Warm Springs schools.[10][11] Audio and video files of Kiksht are available at the Endangered Languages Archive.[12]
The last fluent speaker of the Wasco-Wishram dialect was Madeline Brunoe McInturff, and she died on 11 July 2006 at the age of 91.[13]
Dialects
edit- Multnomah, once spoken on Sauvie Island and in the Portland area in northwestern Oregon
- Kiksht
- Watlala or Watlalla, also known as Cascades, now extinct (two groups, one on each side of the Columbia River; the Oregon group were called Gahlawaihih [Curtis]).
- Hood River, now extinct (spoken by the Hood River Band of the Hood River Wasco in Oregon, also known as Ninuhltidih [Curtis] or Kwikwulit [Mooney])
- White Salmon, now extinct (spoken by the White Salmon River Band of Wishram in Washington)
- Wasco-Wishram (the Wishram lived north of the Columbia River in Washington and the kin Wasco lived south of the same river in Oregon)
- Clackamas, now extinct, was spoken in northwestern Oregon along the Clackamas and Sandy rivers.
Kathlamet has been classified as an additional dialect; it was not mutually intelligible.
Phonology
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | labial | plain | labial | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p | t | ts | tɬ | tʃ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ |
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||||||
| Continuant | voiceless | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | ||
| voiced | w | l | j | ɣ | ɣʷ | ||||||
Vowels in Kiksht are as follows: /u a i ɛ ə/.
References
edit- ^ a b Kristian Foden-Vencil (2012-07-17). "Last Fluent Speaker Of Oregon Tribal Language 'Kiksht' Dies". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on 2019-10-10. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ^ Bureau, US Census. "Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2009-2013". Census.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
- ^ Leonard, Wesley Y.; Haynes, Erin (December 2010). "Making "collaboration" collaborative: An examination of perspectives that frame linguistic field research". Language Documentation & Conservation. 4: 269–293. hdl:10125/4482. ISSN 1934-5275.
- ^ Culture: Language. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. 2009 (retrieved 9 April 2009)
- ^ "Lewis & Clark—Tribes—Wasco Indians". National Geographic. Archived from the original on December 22, 2002. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- ^ Last Fluent Speaker of Kiksht Dies
- ^ "Honors Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs elder Gladys Miller Thompson for her contribution to preserving Native languages of Oregon". 74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ^ "Zelma Smith, 1926-2010". Spilyay Tymoo, Coyote News, the Newspaper of the Warm Springs Reservation. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- ^ Keith Chu (2006-07-30). "New speakers try to save language". The Bulletin. Bend, OR. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- ^ Joanne B. Mulcahy (2005). "Warm Springs: A Convergence of Cultures" (Oregon History Project). Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ^ Aaron Clark. "USA: Tribes Strive to Save Native Tongues". GALDU, Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ^ Nariyo Kono. "Conversational Kiksht". Endangered Languages Archive. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- ^ "Holy road: Speaker of Wasco language dead at 91 - Indian Country Media Network". indiancountrymedianetwork.com. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
Bibliography
edit- Sapir, Edward; Curtin, Jeremiah (1909). Wishram texts, together with Wasco tales and myths. E.J. Brill. ASIN: B000855RIW.
- Dyk, Walter (1933). A Grammar of Wishram. New Haven: Yale University: Yale University Press.
External links
edit- Nariyo Kono. "Conversational Kiksht". Endangered Languages Archive. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- Kiksht - Washco Wishram - Upper Chinook videos, YouTube
- Wasco-Wishram Indian Language (Upper Chinook, Kiksht, Clackamas) at native-languages.org
- Digital Kiksht, video about digitizing Kiksht language materials
- Audio of spoken Kiksht