Klallam (Nəxʷsƛʼayʼəmúcən)

Klallam is a member of the Salishan or Salish family of languages and is once spoken on the north shore of Washington's Olympic Peninsula in the USA, and also at Becher Bay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Today only five people speak Klallam, though efforts are being made to revive the language.

A spelling system for Klallam was devised by linguist Timothy Montler of the University of North Texas during the 1990s. Since then, Montler has been documenting the language and helping the remaining speakers of Klallam to produce teaching material.

The language is also known as Clallam, S'Klallam or Na'Klallam.

Klallam pronunciation

Download an alphabet chart for Klallam

Sample text in Klallam

hiyáʔ č̕ə ƛ̕ácu cə čáʔsəʔ sq̕ʷiyiʔáʔən̕ suʔwə́y̕qəʔ. níɬ č̕ə suʔčəm̕əsnə́kʷis. suʔkʷčáŋəts cə náʔc̕uʔ, "tx̣ʷéyn cxʷ ʔuč? hiyáʔ u cxʷ? hiyáʔ u cxʷ ƛ̕ácu?" suʔqʷáys cə náʔc̕uʔ ʔaʔ "ʔə́wə. hiyáʔ cən ƛ̕ácu." suʔƛ̕áys qʷáy cə náʔc̕uʔ, "o, nəx̣čŋín tə či n̕shiyáʔ ƛ̕ácu"

Translation

It seems two deaf men were going fishing. They met. Then one hollered, "Where are you going? Are you going? Are you going fishing?" The other one said, "No. I'm going fishing." Again the other one spoke, "Oh, I thought you were going fishing."

Source: http://www.ling.unt.edu/~montler/Klallam/Fishermen/

Sample videos in and about Klallam

Links

Introduction to the Klallam Language
http://www.ling.unt.edu/~montler/Klallam/

Information about the Klallam language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klallam_language

Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe
http://www.jamestowntribe.org

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
http://www.elwha.org

Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe
http://www.pgst.nsn.us

Salishan languages

Coeur d'Alene, Comox, Halkomelem, Klallam, Lushootseed, Lillooet, Nuxalk, Okanagan, Saanich, Salish, Shuswap, Squamish, Thompson / Nlaka'pamux

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page last modified: 23.04.21

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