Quileute language facts for kids

The Quileute language, also sometimes called Quillayute, was a special language. It was the last language in the Chimakuan language family. A language family is a group of languages that came from a common ancestor.

Quileute was spoken by the Quileute and Makah people. They lived on the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, USA. The language was spoken in places like La Push and near the lower Hoh River.

Sadly, Quileute is now an extinct language. This means no one speaks it as their first language anymore. The last native speakers were elders who spoke it until the end of the 1900s. The name Quileute comes from kʷoʔlí·yot’, which was the name of a village in La Push.

One cool thing about Quileute is that it didn't have any nasal sounds. These are sounds like "m" or "n" that you make with air going through your nose. This is very unusual for a language! Quileute words could also be very long because the language was polysynthetic. This means many parts of a sentence could be combined into one long word.

Efforts to Save the Language

In 1977, only about ten older people still spoke Quileute. By 1999, there were only a few left. The Quileute Nation is working hard to bring their language back to life.

They are teaching Quileute at the Quileute Tribal School. They use special books written by the tribal elders for the students.

In 2007, the Tribal Council started a project to help people use Quileute words every day. They shared basic words like greetings, numbers, and simple phrases. They offered classes, emails, and computer CDs to help tribal members learn.

Sounds of Quileute

Quileute had a unique sound system. It had three short vowel sounds and four long vowel sounds. These sounds could change a little depending on how they were used in a word.

The way words were stressed, or emphasized, was also interesting. Usually, the stress was on the second-to-last part of a word. Some words also had a second, lighter stress.

As mentioned, Quileute is famous for not having nasal sounds like "m" or "n." A few other languages nearby also share this rare feature.

Here are some of the consonant sounds Quileute used:

How Words Are Formed

Quileute used a system of prefixes. A prefix is a small part added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. What's cool is that these prefixes changed based on the physical traits of the person being talked about.

For example, if you were talking about someone who was cross-eyed, a special prefix was added to every word. If you were talking about a person with a hunched back, a different prefix was used. There were also prefixes for short people, "funny people," and people who had trouble walking. This made the language very descriptive!

See also

• Chemakum language