Tillamook language

Tillamook
Tillamook
Hutyáyu, Hutyéyu
Native to	United States
Region	Northwestern Oregon
Ethnicity	Tillamook, Siletz
Extinct	1972, with the death of Minnie Scovell
Language family	Salishan Coast Salish Tillamook; ;
Dialects	Tillamook; Siletz;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	til
Glottolog	till1254
	Tillamook is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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 Hawai'i interviewed the few remaining Tillamook speakers and created a 120-page dictionary.^[3]

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels in Tillamook^[4]
	Front	Central	Back
High	i		əɰ
Mid		ə
Low	æ		ɑ

The vowel sounds transcribed with the letters ⟨u u˙ o o˙⟩ are analysed as diphthongs with increasing § Internal rounding, being realizations of the phoneme /əw/ ([əɰ]).^[5]

Consonants

Consonants in Tillamook^[4]
		Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		median	lateral	Post- alveolar	Palatal	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	Glottal
Plosive	plain	d				ɡ	ɡᶤ	(ɢ)	(ɢᵓ)	ʔ
	aspirated	tʰ				kʰ	kʰᶤ	qʰ	qʰᵓ
	ejective	tʼ				kʼ	kʼᶤ	qʼ	qʼᵓ
Affricate	plain	t͡s		t͡ʃ
Affricate	ejective	t͡sʼ	t͡ɬʼ	t͡ʃʼ
Fricative		s	ɬ	ʃ		x	xᶤ	χ	χᵓ	h
Sonorant	plain	n	l		j		ɰᶤ
Sonorant	glottalic	nˀ	lˀ		jˀ		ɰˀᶤ

Internal rounding

Tillamook has several phonemic "rounded" velar and uvular consonants, traditionally transcribed with the diacritic ⟨ʷ⟩. However, this is somewhat misleading to the true phonetic articulation of these consonants, as according to Thompson & Thompson, Tillamook lacks labial elements entirely.^[5] Instead, the acoustic quality perceived as labialization is described as an internal rounding created by a "cupping" of the tongue.

This results in uvulars (postvelars) having a [ɔ]-like resonance, while (front) velars exhibit [ɨ] coloring. The chart above uses the ad hoc diacritics ⟨ᵓ⟩ and ⟨ᶤ⟩ to reflect this description and avoid the implication of true labialization. Similarly, the phoneme /w/ is formed with this internal rounding, making it akin to [ɰ].^[5]

Notes

^ ^a ^b "A language all but lost". Tilamook Headlight Herald. May 19, 2009. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
^ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.
^ "Speaking Tillamook". Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Egesdal, Steven; Thompson, M. Terry (1996), A Fresh Look at Tillamook Inflectional Morphology (PDF), University of Hawaii, pp. 1–31, in reference to Thompson & Thompson (1966:318)
^ ^a ^b ^c Thompson & Thompson 1966, p. 316.

Bibliography

Edel, May M (1939). The Tillamook language. New York: J.J. Augustin. LCCN 40001628. OCLC 10272025.
"May M. Edel papers". Archives West. April 13, 2018 [2007]. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
Thompson, Laurence C.; Thompson, M. Terry (1966). "A Fresh Look at Tillamook Phonology". International Journal of American Linguistics. 32 (4): 313–319. doi:10.1086/464920. JSTOR 1264085. S2CID 145658086.

External links

University of Oregon: The Tillamook
Tillamook Language
"Tillamook Vocabulary". California Language Archive. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
OLAC resources in and about the Tillamook language

[tillamookheadlightherald-1] "A language all but lost". Tilamook Headlight Herald. May 19, 2009. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.

[2] Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.

[3] "Speaking Tillamook". Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011.

[tillamook1996-4] Egesdal, Steven; Thompson, M. Terry (1996), A Fresh Look at Tillamook Inflectional Morphology (PDF), University of Hawaii, pp. 1–31, in reference to Thompson & Thompson (1966:318)

[FOOTNOTEThompsonThompson1966316-5] Thompson & Thompson 1966, p. 316.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]