Tillamook is anextinctSalishan language, formerly spoken by theTillamook people in northwesternOregon,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 theUniversity of Hawaii interviewed the few remaining Tillamook speakers and created a 120-page dictionary.[3]
Tillamook has severalphonemic "rounded" velar and uvular consonants, traditionally transcribed with the diacritic ⟨ʷ⟩. However, this is somewhat misleading to the truephonetic articulation of these consonants, as according to Thompson & Thompson, Tillamook lacks labial elements entirely.[5] Instead, the acoustic quality perceived aslabialization 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]; likewise, the vowel sounds transcribed with the symbols ⟨uu˙oo˙⟩ are more accurately interpreted as diphthongs with increasing internal rounding, being realizations of the phoneme/əw/ ([əɰ]).[5]
"May M. Edel papers".Archives West. April 13, 2018 [2007]. RetrievedJune 19, 2024.
Thompson, Lawrence C.; Thompson, M. Terry (1966). "A Fresh Look at Tillamook Phonology".International Journal of American Linguistics.32 (4):313–319.doi:10.1086/464920.JSTOR1264085.S2CID145658086.
