Region Whatcom County | ISO 639-3 nok | |
Ethnicity 1,600 Nooksack people (1997) Extinct 1988, with the death of Sindick Jimmy Revival 1 fluent L2 speaker in 2010 Language family Salish
Coast Salish
Central
Nooksack | ||
The Nooksack language (Lhéchalosem) is a Coast Salish language spoken by the Nooksack people of northwestern Washington State in the United States, centered in Whatcom County.
Contents
The Nooksack language belongs to the Coast Salishan family of languages, and has one fluent speaker as of 2010.
Nooksack is most closely related to Squamish, Sháshíshálhem (Sechelt) and Halkomelem, which are all spoken in nearby parts of British Columbia, Canada.
Usage and revitalization efforts
In the 1970s, the Salishan linguist Brent Galloway worked closely with the last remaining native speaker, Sindick Jimmy, who died in 1988. He was compiling a dictionary of the language, and his book, Nooksack place names: geography, culture, and language, appeared in 2011. The Nooksack tribe has offered classes in the language. As of 2010, one fluent speaker remained, a Nooksack tribal member who is part of the Lhéchalosem Teacher Training Language Immersion Project.
Students will spend mornings in language immersion, and afternoons working on special projects, focusing on the language use in one aspect of local native culture such as fishing or crafts. After two years, the students will obtain a certificate similar to an Associate Degree, and after four years they will be fully qualified language teachers, with the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts. The aim is to revive the use of the Lhéchalosem language in all aspects of daily life. The program has an annual budget of $110,000, with 60 percent funded by the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) and 40 percent funded by the Nooksack Tribe.
Vowels
The following table includes all the vowel sounds found in the Nooksack language.
Consonants
The following table includes all the consonant sounds found in the Nooksack language.
Orthography
In addition, the symbol "ː" indicates long vowels and consonants (e.g. mː, aː). An acute accent (´) is placed on the accented syllable.