Chinookan languages

Chinook Tsinúk
Geographic distribution:	Columbia River Valley
Genetic classification:	Chinook
Subdivisions:	—
Pre-contact distribution of Chinookan languages

Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.

Family division

Chinookan consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: chh (Chinook, Lower Chinook) and wac (Wasco-Wishram, Upper Chinook). For example, Ethnologue 15e classifies Kiksht as Lower Chinook, while others consider it instead Upper Chinook (discussion), as used in this article.

1. Kathlamet (also known as Katlamat, Cathlamet), now extinct (†).

   Kathlamet was spoken in northwestern Oregon along the south bank of the lower Columbia River.

   Kathlamet has been classified as a dialect of Upper Chinook (or Middle Chinook), but they are not mutually intelligible.

2. Lower Chinook (also known as Coastal Chinook) (chh), now extinct (†).
   • Clatsop was spoken in northwestern Oregon around the mouth of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains (†).
   • Shoalwater (also known as Chinook proper), now extinct (†). Shoalwater was spoken in southwestern Washington around southern Willapa Bay.
3. Upper Chinook (also known as Kiksht, Columbia Chinook) (wac)
   • Cascades, now extinct (†).
   • Clackamas, now extinct (†); was spoken in northwestern Oregon along the Clackamas and Sandy rivers.
   • Hood River, now extinct (†).
   • Multnomah (†) Multnomah spoken on Sauvie Island and in the Portland area in northwestern Oregon.
   • Wasco-Wishram language (wac), still spoken by the Wasco-Wishram people, but highly endangered.
     • Wasco has five speakers left.^[1]
     • Wishram has two speakers.
   • White Salmon, now extinct (†).

Watlala was spoken in north-central Oregon along the Columbia River Gorge.

See also

Chinook Jargon -- a pidgin based on Chinookan and with many words loaned from other languages, which was used in trade along the Pacific Northwest coast and adjoining areas inland.

Bibliography

• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

Further reading

• Gibbs, George (1863). Alphabetical vocabulary of the Chinook language. Cramoisy Press. http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/publications%5Fdetail.aspx?p=65. 

References

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