Samish (''Xws7ámeshqen,'' ) is a dialect of the North Straits Salish

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

spoken by the Indigenous Samish people of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. Samish is traditionally referred to as a language, but it is mutually intelligible with the other dialects of North Straits Salish. Samish is a Coast Salish language and is closely related to other languages in that family. The Samish language is still spoken by some Samish tribal members, and the Samish Indian Nation's ''Xws7ámeshqen'' Program is working to revitalize the language in daily life. They offer classes to tribal citizens and have an online website with a wordlist and placenames.

Phonology

* is a rare sound, only occurring in the deictic morpheme . * may commonly be heard as in free variation among speakers. * is only found in loanwords.

Orthography

References

External links

Samish Language Program
{{Authority control North Straits Salish languages Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations languages in Canada Indigenous languages of Washington (state)