Lushootseed
dxʷləšucid,txʷəlšucid,xʷəlšucid
Native to	United States
Region	North WesternWashington, around thePuget Sound
Ethnicity	Lushootseed-speaking peoples
Extinct	2008, with the death ofVi Hilbert (taqʷšəblu)[1]
Revival	472 L2 speakers (2022)[2]
Language family	Salishan Coast Salish Central Lushootseed
Dialects	Northern Lushootseed Southern Lushootseed
Writing system	Latin (NAPA)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lut – inclusive code Individual codes: slh – Southern Lushootseed ska – Skagit sno – Snohomish
Glottolog	lush1251
ELP	Lushootseed
Historical extent of Lushootseed dialects
Lushootseed is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

Lushootseed (/lʌˈʃuːtsiːd/luh-SHOOT-tseed),^[3][a] historically known asPuget Salish, Puget Sound Salish, orSkagit-Nisqually, is a CentralCoast Salish language of the Salishan language family. Lushootseed is the general name for thedialect continuum composed of two main dialects, Northern Lushootseed andSouthern Lushootseed, which are further separated into smaller sub-dialects.

Lushootseed was historically spoken across southern and westernPuget Sound roughly between modern-dayBellingham andOlympia by anumber of Indigenous peoples. Lushootseed speakers were estimated to number 12,000 at the peak.^[4][5]

Today, however, it is primarily a ceremonial language, spoken for heritage or symbolic purposes. There are about 472 known second-language speakers of Lushootseed.^[2] It is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger^{[citation needed]} and classified as Reawakening by Ethnologue.^[6]

Many Lushootseed-speaking tribes are attempting to revitalize the daily use of their language. Several language programs and classes are offered across the region.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Lushootseed has been historically known as Niskwalli/Nisqually, Puget Sound Salish,^[12] Puget Salish, Pugué, Squaxon,^[6] Skagit, and Skagit-Nisqually.

The name of the language in Lushootseed is pronounced (and spelled) variably across different dialects. In the northern dialects, the language is calleddxʷləšucid. In most southern dialects, it istxʷəlšucid, whereas in the Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie dialect, it is pronouncedxʷəlšucid.^[13] The southern pronunciationtxʷəlšucid is derived from the original byde-voicingd intot and switching the position ofl andə.^[14]

The English nameLushootseed is derived fromdxʷləšucid. Theprefixdxʷ- along with thesuffix-ucid means'language'. Theroot word,ləš, is an archaic word for the Puget Sound region.^[12] Some scholars, such asWayne Suttles, believe it may be an old word for'people', possibly related to the wordSalish.^[15][16]

Lushootseed, like its neighborsTwana,Nooksack,Klallam, and theNorth Straits Salish languages, are in the Central Coast Salish subgroup of theSalishan family of languages.^[17] The language is spoken by many peoples in thePuget Sound region, including theDuwamish,Suquamish,Squaxin,Muckleshoot,Snoqualmie,Nisqually, andPuyallup in the south and theSnohomish,Stillaguamish,Upper Skagit, andSwinomish in the north.

Ethnologue quotes a source published in 1990 (and therefore presumably reflecting the situation in the late 1980s), according to which there were 60 fluent speakers of Lushootseed, evenly divided between the northern and southern dialects.^[6] On the other hand, the Ethnologue list of United States languages also lists, alongside Lushootseed's 60 speakers, 100 speakers for Skagit, 107 for Southern Puget Sound Salish, and 10 for Snohomish (a dialect on the boundary between the northern and southern varieties).^[6] Some sources given for these figures, however, go back to the 1970s when the language was less critically endangered. LinguistMarianne Mithun has collected more recent data on the number of speakers of various Native American languages, and could document that by the end of the 1990s there were only a handful of elders left who spoke Lushootseed fluently. The language was extensively documented and studied by linguists with the aid of tribal elderVi Hilbert, d. 2008, who was the last speaker with a full native command of Lushootseed.^[1] There are efforts at reviving the language, and instructional materials have been published.

In 2014, there were only five second-language speakers of Lushootseed. As of 2022, although there were not yet native speakers, there were approximately 472 second-language Lushootseed speakers, according to data collected by thePuyallup Tribe. By their definition, a "speaker" includes anyone who speaks in Lushootseed for at least an hour each day.^[2]

As of 2013^[update], theTulalip Tribes' Lushootseed Language Department teaches classes in Lushootseed,^[7][8] and its website has Lushootseed phrases with audio.^[18] The Tulalip Montessori School also teaches Lushootseed to young children.^[9]Tulalip Lushootseed language teachers also teach at the Tulalip Early Learning Academy, Quil Ceda-Tulalip Elementary in the Marysville School District, Totem Middle School, and Marysville-Getchell, Marysville-Pilchuck and Heritage High Schools. Since 1996, the Tulalip Lushootseed Department has hosted the annualdxʷləšucid sʔəsqaləkʷ ʔə ti wiw̓suʔ, a summer language camp for children. Teachers also offer family classes in the evening every year, making Lushootseed a family experience.^{[citation needed]}

Wa He Lut Indian School teaches Lushootseed to Native elementary school children in their Native Language and Culture program.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2013^[update], an annual Lushootseed conference is held atSeattle University.^[11] A course in Lushootseed language and literature has been offered atEvergreen State College.^[19]Lushootseed has also been used as a part of environmental history courses atPacific Lutheran University.^[1] It has been spoken during the annualTribal Canoe Journeys that takes place throughout theSalish Sea.

There are also efforts within the Puyallup Tribe. Their website and social media, aimed at anyone interested in learning the language, are updated often.^[10]

To facilitate the use of Lushootseed in electronic files, in 2008 the Tulalip Tribes contracted type designer Juliet Shen to createUnicode-compliant typefaces that met the needs of the language. Drawing upon traditional Lushootseed carvings and artwork, she developed two typefaces: Lushootseed School and Lushootseed Sulad.^[20][21] The Nisqually tribe contracted the Language Conservancy to make a Lushootseed Keyboard for mobile devices.^[22]

The University of Washington has long been involved in Lushootseed research and teaching. Lushootseed was first taught on the Seattle campus in 1972 by Thom Hess, a linguistics professor, and the following year he turned over the class to Vi Hilbert, who would be the last native speaker. From 1973 to 1988, Vi Hilbert taught Lushootseed on the Seattle campus.^[23] Hess and Hilbert published a Lushootseed dictionary and readers in the 1990s. In the summers of 2016 and 2017, an adult immersion program in Lushootseed was offered at theUniversity of Washington's Tacoma campus. It was sponsored by The Puyallup Tribal Language Program in partnership with University of Washington Tacoma and its School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.^[24] Southern Lushootseed classes started in 2018 on the University of Washington's Seattle campus, taught by Tami Hohn, a Puyallup tribal member.^[25]

Lushootseed consists of two main dialect groups,Northern Lushootseed (dxʷləšucid) andSouthern Lushootseed (txʷəlšucid~xʷəlšucid). Both of these dialects can then be broken down into subdialects:^[26]

• Northern Lushootseed
  • (Upper) Skagit
    • Lower Skagit (Swinomish)
  • Sauk
  • Snohomish (Tulalip)
• Southern Lushootseed
  • Skykomish
  • Snoqualmie
  • Suquamish
  • Duwamish
  • Muckleshoot
  • Puyallup
  • Nisqually
  • Squaxin/Sahewamish

The Lower and Upper Skagit dialects have variously been categorized as being different from one another, or one and the same, but are both recognized as being distinct from the Sauk dialect.^[15][26] There is no consensus on whether theSkykomish dialect should be grouped into Northern or Southern Lushootseed.^[26][27]

Dialects differ in several ways. Pronunciation between dialects is different. In Northern dialects, the stress of the word generally falls on the first non-schwa of the root, whereas in the Southern dialects, stress usually is placed on the penultimate syllable. Some words do not fit the pattern, but generally, pronunciation is consistent in those ways. Northern Lushootseed also was affected by progressive dissimilation targeting palatal fricatives and affricates, whereas Southern Lushootseed was not, leading to some words likečəgʷəš ("wife") being pronouncedčəgʷas in Northern dialects.^[26]

Different dialects often use completely different words. For example, the word for "raccoon" isx̌aʔx̌əlus in Northern Lushootseed, whereasbəlups is used in Southern Lushootseed.^[26]

Morphology also differs between Northern and Southern Lushootseed. Northern Lushootseed and Southern Lushootseed have related, but different determiner systems. There are also several differences in utilizing the prefix for marking "place where" or "reason for," in subordinate clauses, with Northern Lushootseed usingdəxʷ- and Southern Lushootseed usingsxʷ-.^[26]

SeeDeterminers for more information on this dialectical variation.

Lushootseed has a complex consonantal phonology and 4 vowel phonemes. Along with more commonvoicing andlabialization contrasts, Lushootseed has a plain-glottalic contrast, which is realized aslaryngealized withsonorants, andejective with voiceless stops or fricatives.^[28][29]

Lushootseed has nophonemicnasals. However, the nasals[m],[m̰],[n], and[n̰] may appear in some speech styles and words as variants of/b/ and/d/.^[29]

According to work published by Vi Hilbert and other Lushootseed-language specialists, Lushootseed uses amorphophonemic writing system meaning that it is aphonemic alphabet which does not change to reflect the pronunciation such as when an affix is introduced. The chart below is based on the Lushootseed Dictionary. Typographic variations such as⟨c'⟩ and⟨cʼ⟩ do not indicate phonemic distinctions. Capital letters are not used in Lushootseed.^[32]

Some older works based on the Dictionary of Puget Salish distinguishes betweenschwas that are part of the root word and those inserted through agglutination which are written in superscript.^[33]

The Tulalip Tribes of Washington's Lushootseed Language Department created a display with nearly all the letters in the Lushootseedalphabet, except the letter b̓, which is a rare sound which no words begin with.

See theexternal links below for resources.

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Almost all instances of a verb in Lushootseed (excluding the zero copula) carry a prefix indicating theirtense and/oraspect. Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of these prefixes, along with their meanings and applications.

The prefixʔəs- is one of the most common. It indicates an imperfective aspect-present tense (similar to English '-ing') for verbs that do not involve motion. More specifically, a verb may useʔəs- if it does not result in a change of position for its subject. It is commonly known as a "state of being":

ʔəsƛ̕ubil čəd. 'I am feeling fine.' or 'I am in good health.'

If a verb does involve motion, theʔəs- prefix is replaced withlə-:

ləƛ̕a čəd ʔálʔal. 'I'm going home.'

Completed ortelic actions use the prefixʔu-. Most verbs withoutʔəs- orlə- will useʔu-. Some verbs also exhibit a contrast in meaning betweenlə- andʔu-, and only one of them is correct:

ʔusaxʷəb čəxʷ. 'You jump(ed).'

The verbsaxʷəb literally means 'to jump, leap, or run, especially in a short burst of energy', and is correctly used withʔu-. In contrast, the verbtəlawil, which means 'to jump or run for an extended period of time', is used withlə-:

lətəlawil čəxʷ. 'You are jumping.'

There are five possessive affixes, derived from the pronouns:

The third person singular-s is considered marginal and does not work with an actual lexical possessor.

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Lushootseed can be considered a relativelyagglutinating language, given its high number of morphemes, including a large number of lexical suffixes. Word order is fairly flexible, although it is generally considered to beverb-subject-object (VSO).^[37]

Lushootseed is capable of creating grammatically correct sentences that contain only a verb, with no subject or object. All information beyond the action is to be understood by context. This can be demonstrated inʔuʔəy'dub '[someone] managed to find [someone/something]'.^[38] Sentences which contain no verb at all are also common, as Lushootseed has nocopula. An example of such a sentence isstab əw̓ə tiʔiɫ 'What [is] that?'.^[39]

Despite its general status as VSO, Lushootseed can be rearranged to be subject-verb-object (SVO) and verb-object-subject (VOS). Doing so does not modify the words themselves, but requires the particleʔə to mark the change. The exact nature of this particle is the subject of some debate.

Prepositions in Lushootseed are almost entirely handled by one word,ʔal, which can mean 'on, above, in, beside, around' among a number of potential other meanings. They come before the object they reference, much like in English. Examples of this can be found in the following phrases:

1. stab əw̓ə tiʔiɫʔal tə stuləkʷ 'What is thatin the river?'
2. ʔuyayus ti dbadʔal tudiʔ 'My father is workingover there.'
3. šəqabac ʔal ti piit 'On top of the bed.'

Lushootseed has four subject pronouns:čəd 'I' (first-person singular),čəɬ 'we' (first-person plural),čəxʷ 'you' (second-person singular), andčələp 'you' (second-person plural). It does not generally refer to the third person in any way.

The subject pronoun always comes in the second position in the sentence:

dxʷləbiʔčəxʷ ʔu 'Are you Lummi?'xʷiʔčəd lədxʷləbiʔ 'I am not Lummi.'

Here, negation takes the first position, the subject pronoun takes the second, and 'Lummi' is pushed to the end of the sentence.^[38]

Negation in Lushootseed takes the form of an adverbxʷiʔ 'no, none, nothing' which always comes at the beginning of the sentence that is to be negated. It is constructed in two possible ways, one for negatives of existence, and one for negatives of identity. If taking the form of a negative of identity, a procliticlə- must be added to the sentence on the next adverb. If there are no further adverbs in the sentence, the proclitic attaches to the head word of the predicate, as in the sentencexʷiʔ čəxʷ sixʷ ləbakʷɬ 'Don't get hurt again'.^[38]

The Lushootseed language originates from the coastal region of Northwest Washington State and the Southwest coast of Canada. There are words in the Lushootseed language which are related to the environment and the fishing economy that surrounded the Salish tribes. The following tables show different words from different Lushootseed dialects relating to the salmon fishing and coastal economies.

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in Lushootseed:

• ʔəsdiɬdiɬgʷəs ti sdᶻəw̓il ʔi ti staltalx̌ ʔə ti sbək̓ʷaʔkʷbixʷ tul̕ʔal ti sgʷəcs. ʔəstalx̌ əlgʷəʔ kʷi gʷəsx̌əčbids gʷəl ɬutabab ti bək̓ʷaʔkʷbixʷ x̌əɬ ti tə təɬ syəyaʔyaʔ.

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

• Hess, Thom (1995).Lushootseed Reader with Introductory Grammar. Vol. I. Dallas: Tulalip Tribes.ISBN 1879763117.LCCN 95-060060.

• Bates, D., Hess, T., &Hilbert, V. (1994).Lushootseed Dictionary. Seattle: University of Washington Press.ISBN 9780295973234
• Beck, David. "Transitivity and causation in Lushootseed morphology." Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle 13 (1996): 11–20.
• Browner, Tara (2009).Music of the First Nations: Tradition and Innovation in Native North America. University of Illinois Press. pp. 35–36.
• Indiana University, Bloomington (1996).Lushootseed texts: an introduction to Puget Salish narrative aesthetics. Studies in the anthropology of North American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington.ISBN 0803212623.
• Chamberlain, Rebecca,Lushootseed Language & Literature: Program reader. (Lushootseed language, cultural, and storytelling traditions.)
• Hess, Thom (1995).Lushootseed reader. University of Montana occasional papers in linguistics. S.l.: Tulalip Tribes.ISBN 1879763141.
• Hess, Thom and Vi Hilbert.Lushootseed Book 1; The language of the Skagit, Nisqually, and other tribes of Puget Sound. An Introduction. Lushootseed Press 1995
• Hess, Thom and Vi Hilbert.Lushootseed Book 2 (Advanced Lushootseed). Lushootseed Press, 1995
• Hess, Thom (1995).Lushootseed Reader with Introductory Grammar. Missoula: University of Montana.ISBN 1879763117.
• Hilbert, Vi.Haboo: Native American Stories from Puget Sound. Seattle: University of Washington, 1985
• Hilbert, Vi, Crisca Bierwest, Thom Hess.Way of the Lushootseed People; Ceremonies & Traditions of North Puget Sound's First People. Third Edition, Lushootseed Press, 2001
• dxʷlešucid xʷgʷədgʷatəd tul̓ʔal taqʷšəblu; Some Lushootseed Vocabulary from taqʷšəblu. Lushootseed Press, 1993

For a list of words relating to Lushootseed, see theLushootseed category of words inWiktionary, the free dictionary.

Lushootseed test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Puyallup Tribal Language Program
• The Tulalip Lushootseed Department's Website
• Keyboards and fonts for typing in Lushootseed
• Interactive alphabet app through the Tulalip Lushootseed Department
• "History professor helps keep local Native American language alive" by Drew Brown for PLU Scene Magazine
• Lushootseed | Ethnologue
• The Lushootseed Peoples of Puget Sound Country
• Lushootseed Research
• Dr. David Beck, Salishan Language specialist
• Developing a corpus for Lushootseed (archived)

• Coast Salish languages
• Lushootseed language
• Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast
• Indigenous languages of Washington (state)
• Native American language revitalization
• Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas
• Tulalip Tribes
• Nisqually

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