Samish dialect

Samish
Samish
Xws7ámeshqen
Pronunciation	[xʷsʔ'e.məʃ.qen]
Native to	United States, Canada
Ethnicity	Samish people
Revival
Language family	Salishan Coast Salish Central Coast Salish Straits Salish North Straits Salish Samish; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	NAPA (Xws7ámeshqen Alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	sami1249
	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.

Samish (Xws7ámeshqen, IPA: [xʷsʔ'e.məʃ.qen])^[2] is a dialect of the North Straits Salish dialect continuum spoken by the Indigenous Samish people of the Pacific Northwest. Samish is traditionally referred to as a language, but it is mutually intelligible with the other dialects of North Straits Salish. Samish is a Coast Salish language and is closely related to other languages in that family.

The Samish language is still spoken by some Samish tribal members, and the Samish Indian Nation's Xws7ámeshqen Program is working to revitalize the language in daily life. They offer classes to tribal citizens and have an online website with a wordlist and placenames.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants
		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Postvelar		Glottal
		Bilabial	Dental	median	sibilant	lateral	Palatal	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p		t	(t͡s)		t͡ʃ	(k)	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
Plosive/ Affricate	ejective	pʼ	t͡θʼ	tʼ	(t͡sʼ)	t͡ɬʼ	t͡ʃʼ		kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ	ʔ
Fricative					s	ɬ	ʃ		xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m		n		l	j		w	ŋ
Sonorant	glottalized	mˀ		nˀ		lˀ	jˀ		wˀ	ŋˀ

/t͡s/ is a rare sound, only occurring in the deictic morpheme ⟨cə⟩.
/t͡θʼ/ may commonly be heard as [t͡sʼ] in free variation among speakers.
/k/ is only found in loanwords.^[3]

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə
Open		a

Orthography

Xws7ámeshqen Alphabet^[4]
Uppercase	Lowercase	IPA
7		/ʔ/
A	a	/e/
Ch	ch	/t͡ʃ/
Ch'	ch'	/t͡ʃ‘/
E	e	/e~ə/
H	h	/h/
I	i	/i/
K	k	/k~k’/
Kw	kw	/kʷ/
Kw'	kw'	/kʷ’/
L	l	/l/
Lh	lh	/ɬ/
M	m	/m/
N	n	/n/
Ng	ng	/ŋ/
O	o	/ɔ/
P	p	/p/
P'	p'	/p’/
Q	q	/q/
Q'	q'	/q’/
Qw	qw	/qʷ/
Qw'	qw'	/qʷʼ/
S	s	/s/
Sh	sh	/ʃ/
T	t	/t/
T'	t'	/t’/
Tl'	tl'	/t͡ɬ’/
Ts	ts	/ts/
Ts'	ts'	/ts’/
U	u	/u/
W	w	/w/
X̲	x̲	/χ/
Xw	xw	/xʷ/
X̲w	x̲w	/χʷ/
Y	y	/j/

References

^ "Language". www.samishtribe.nsn.us. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
^ ^a ^b "Language". Samish Indian Nation. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
^ Galloway, Brent D. (1990). A Phonology, Morphology and Classified Word List for the Samish Dialect of Straits Salish. Canadian Ethnology Service, Mercury Series Paper. Hull, Quebec: Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization. doi:10.2307/j.ctv16qb1.5.
^ Hall, Kelly; McCool, Christopher. "Introduction to Samish Language". Samish Indian Nation – via Samish E-Classroom.

External links

Samish Language Program

[1] "Language". www.samishtribe.nsn.us. Retrieved 2025-01-07.

[:0-2] "Language". Samish Indian Nation. Retrieved 2023-06-24.

[3] Galloway, Brent D. (1990). A Phonology, Morphology and Classified Word List for the Samish Dialect of Straits Salish. Canadian Ethnology Service, Mercury Series Paper. Hull, Quebec: Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization. doi:10.2307/j.ctv16qb1.5.

[4] Hall, Kelly; McCool, Christopher. "Introduction to Samish Language". Samish Indian Nation – via Samish E-Classroom.

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