Lummi dialect

Lummi (Xwlemi Chosen, IPA: [xʷləmi tʃɔsən]) is a dialect of the North Straits Salish language traditionally spoken by the Lummi people of northwest Washington, in the United States. Although traditionally referred to as a language, it is mutually intelligible with the other dialects of North Straits.

Lummi
Xwlemi Chosen
Pronunciation	[xʷləmi tʃɔsən]
Region	Pacific Northwest
Ethnicity	Lummi people
Language family	Salishan languages Coast Salish Central Straits Salish North Straits Salish Lummi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	lumm1243

Lummi language is still spoken on the Lummi reservation and is taught at Ferndale High School,^[1] Lummi Nation School, Vista Middle School, Horizon Middle School, Skyline and Eagleridge Elementary Schools,^[2] and the Northwest Indian College.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			central	sibilant	lateral		plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t	t͡s		t͡ʃ		kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	t͡sʼ	t͡ɬʼ	t͡ʃʼ		kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ
Fricative				s	ɬ	ʃ		xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m	n		l	j	ŋ	w
	glottalized	ˀm	ˀn			ˀj	ˀŋ	ˀw

• /ts/ phonemically occurs only rarely within vocabulary.^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid/Open	æ	ə	ɔ

• Vowel sounds /æ, ɔ/ may also be heard as more mid or open as [ɛ, ɒ].^[4]

References

1. Ferndale Native American Education. Archived 2017-11-12 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Native American Education - Ferndale School District". Archived from the original on 2021-07-29.
3. Charles, Al; Demers, Richard A.; Bowman, Elizabeth (1978). Introduction to the Lummi language.
4. Montler, Timothy (1999). Language and Dialect Variation in Straits Salishan. Anthropological Linguistics Vol. 41, No. 4 (Winter, 1999): Indiana University. pp. 462–502.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Further reading

• Gibbs, George (1863). Alphabetical Vocabularies of the Clallam and Lummi. Cramoisy Press. Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection or at Internet Archive