Quileute also known as Quillayute , is the only surviving Chimakuan language

Chimakuan languages

The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Mosan sprachbund, and one of its languages is famous for having no nasal consonants...

, spoken by a few Quileute and Makah elders on the western coast of the Olympic peninsula south of Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery may refer to:* Cape Flattery * Cape Flattery , between North Direction Island, South Direction Island and Three Islands...

 at La Push and the lower Hoh River

Hoh River

The Hoh River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington, located on the Olympic Peninsula. About long, the Hoh River originates at the Hoh Glacier on Mount Olympus and flows west through the Olympic Mountains of Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest, then through the foothills in a...

 in Washington state

Washington State

Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...

, USA. The name Quileute comes from kʷoʔlí·yot’ kʷoʔléːjotʼ, the name of a village at La Push.

Quileute is famous for its lack of nasal sounds

Nasal consonant

A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...

, such as [m], [n], or nasal vowel

Nasal vowel

A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...

s, an areal feature of Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

.
Quileute is polysynthetic and words can be quite long.

There were ten elderly speakers in 1977, and "a few" in 1999. The Quileute Nation is attempting to prevent the loss of the language by teaching it in the Quileute Tribal School

Quileute Tribal School

Quileute Tribal School is a Quileute, Native American school located in La Push, Washington. It is a K-12 school, serving students in grades kindergarten – 12. QTS is part of the Quillayute Valley School District. The school was founded in 1971. The principal is Jack Fry.There were ten...

, using books written for the students by the tribal elders.

Phonology

Quileute has three vowels, /e/, /a/, /o/ long and short , as well as /æː/ which only occurs long. Stress is historically penultimate, though this has become somewhat obscured and is no longer predictable. It has the following consonants (t͡ɬ and ɡ are rare):

		Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...		Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....		Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...		Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
			central	lateral		plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
	voiced	b	d			(ɡ)
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ			kʼ	kʼʷ	qʼ	qʼʷ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	(t͡ɬ)	t͡ʃ
	ejective		t͡sʼ	t͡ɬʼ	t͡ʃʼ
Fricative			s	ɬ	ʃ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
Approximant				l	j		w

External links

• Quileute language resources provided by the Quileute Nation
• Quileute language
• Quileute languages resources
• English to Quileute Dictionary