MultiTree:

Name: Lower Chehalis Type: Language Alternate Names: Chehalis, Lower; ɬəwʼálʼməš Once Spoken in: USA Code: cea Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: LINGUIST List Families: Salishan (Salish) Parent Subgroup: Tsamosan; Olympic (tsam) Child Dialects: Wynoochee; Wynoochie; Lower Chehalis; Chehalis (cea-wyn) Humptulips; Lower Chehalis; Chehalis (cea-hum) Westport-Shoalwater (cea-wsh) Brief Description: "Lower Chehalis, one of the four languages of the Tsamosan division of the Salishan family, was formerly spoken in a number of local varieties along the lower Chehalis River and around Grays Harbor and Shoalwater Bay on the coast of southwest Washington. Most Lower Chehalis descendants live on the Shoalwater Bay Reservation, although some on the Quinault Reservation. Few speakers of Lower Chehalis survived into the twentieth century, and the language is not well documented, although a substantial number of sound recordings of one of the last fluent speakers were made around 1940. One very elderly and incapacitated man may have some limited fluency, and a few others may have a passive knowledge of words and phrases, but the language is extinct as a medium of communication." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 17

Endangerment Status

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Linguist List Status: Extinct UNESCO Status: Extinct Ethnologue Status: Extinct Sutherland's Red List: Not listed