Tillamook
Hutyáyu, Hutyéyu
Native toUnited States
RegionNorthwestern Oregon
EthnicityTillamook, Siletz
Extinct1972, with the death of Minnie Scovell[1]
Dialects
  • Tillamook
  • Siletz
Language codes
ISO 639-3til
Glottologtill1254

Tillamook is an extinct Salishan language, formerly spoken by the Tillamook people in northwestern Oregon, United States. The last fluent speaker was Minnie Scovell who died in 1972.[1] In an effort to prevent the language from being lost, a group of researchers from the University of Hawaii interviewed the few remaining Tillamook-speakers and created a 120-page dictionary.[2]

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels in Tillamook
Front Back
High i ə
Low æ ɑ

Consonants

Consonants in Tillamook
Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Velar Uvular Glottal
centralsibilantlateral unroundedrounded unroundedrounded
Stop plain t t͡s t͡ʃ k kᵓ q qᵓ ʔ
ejective tʼ t͡sʼ t͡ɬʼ t͡ʃʼ kʼ kᵓʼ qʼ qᵓʼ
Fricative s ɬ ʃ x xᵓ χ χᵓ h
Sonorant n l j ɰᵓ

Internal rounding

The so-called "rounded" consonants (traditionally marked with the diacritic ⟨ʷ⟩, but here indicated with ⟨ᵓ⟩), including rounded vowels and ⟨w⟩ (/ɰᵓ/), are not actually labialized. The acoustic effect of labialization is created entirely inside the mouth by cupping the tongue (sulcalization). Uvulars with this distinctive internal rounding have "a kind of ɔ timbre" while "rounded" front velars have ɯ coloring. These contrast and oppose otherwise very similar segments having ɛ or ɪ coloring—the "unrounded" consonants.

/w/ is also formed with this internal rounding instead of true labialization, making it akin to [ɰ]. So are vowel sounds formerly written as /o/ or /u/, which are best characterized as the diphthong /əɰ/ with increasing internal rounding.[3]

Notes

  1. 1 2 "A language all but lost".
  2. ↑ Official site of Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes Archived 2011-06-16 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Thompson & Thompson (1966), p. 316

Bibliography

  • Thompson, Lawrence C.; M. Terry Thompson (1966). "A Fresh Look at Tillamook Phonology". International Journal of American Linguistics. 32 (4): 313–319. doi:10.1086/464920. S2CID 145658086.
  • Edel, May M (1939). The Tillamook language. New York: J.J. Augustin. OCLC 10272025.
  • "May M. Edel papers". Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
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