Chimakuan languages facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chimakuan
Geographic distribution:	Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Linguistic classification:	One of the world's primary language families
Proto-language:	Proto-Chimakuan
Subdivisions:	Chemakum † Quileute † (both extinct)
ISO 639-2 and 639-5:	nai
Pre-contact distribution of Chimakuan languages

The Chimakuan languages were two old languages spoken by Native American tribes in the northwestern part of Washington state, USA. These languages were used by the Chimakum, Quileute, and Hoh tribes on the Olympic Peninsula. Sadly, both of these languages are now extinct, meaning no one speaks them as their first language anymore.

One interesting thing about the Quileute language is that it didn't have any nasal sounds (like 'm' or 'n')! The two Chimakuan languages, Chemakum and Quileute, were quite similar to each other, like how English and German are related. Because they were spoken close to Wakashan languages, they also shared some similarities with those languages.

Chimakuan Language Family

The Chimakuan language family includes two main languages:

• Chemakum (also called Chimakum or Chimacum)
• Quileute (also called Quillayute)

Both of these languages are now extinct. This means that there are no longer any native speakers of these languages.

Chemakum Language

The Chemakum language was spoken until the 1940s. It was used on the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula, in areas between Port Townsend and Hood Canal. The name "Chemakum" comes from a word in a nearby language, which was used to describe the Chimakum people.

Quileute Language

The Quileute language is also extinct. However, in recent years, there have been efforts to bring it back. Today, a small number of people from the Quileute tribe speak it as a second language. They live on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula, near a place called La Push. The name "Quileute" comes from the name of a village there.

Sounds of the Languages

The Chimakuan languages had sounds similar to other languages in their region. They had few vowels, but many interesting consonants. These included ejective consonants (sounds made with a burst of air), uvular consonants (sounds made at the back of the throat), and lateral affricates (sounds like 'tl').

Each language also had its own unique sound features:

• Chemakum did not have simple velar consonants (sounds like 'k' or 'g').
• Quileute famously had no nasal consonants (sounds like 'm' or 'n'). This is very rare for a language!

How Words Are Built

Chimakuan languages used many suffixes. Suffixes are small parts added to the end of a word to change its meaning. They had over 20 common suffixes that changed how words worked in sentences. They also had about 200 suffixes that could create new words.

Unlike English, these languages did not use prefixes (parts added to the beginning of a word). Sometimes, they used infixes, which are parts added into the middle of a word.

Numbers in Chimakuan Languages

Here are the numbers from 1 to 10 in Chemakum and Quileute. You can see how some numbers are similar, while others are very different. When numbers are similar across languages, it means they come from a common older language. These are called "cognates."

See also

In Spanish: Lenguas chimaku para niños