Northern Straits > LINGUIST List Language Search
Name:
Northern Straits
Type:
Language
Alternate Names:
Salish (Straits); Salish, Straits; Straits; Songish; Lkungen; Northern Straits Salish
Spoken in:
USA, Canada
Number of speakers:
20 in Canada (2002 W. Poser). Ethnic population: 3,020 (2001 Census)
(Ethnologue)
Number of speakers:
180
(UNESCO)
Number of speakers:
20
(World Oral Literature Project)
Code:
str
Code Standard:
ISO 639-3
Documentation:
SIL
Families:
Salishan (Salish)
Parent Subgroup:
Central Salish; Coast Salish (csal)
Child Dialects:
Saanich; Saanish; Sanetch; SENO̍OŦEN; sənčáɵən; sénəčqən (str-saa)
Songhees; Songish; Lkungen; Ləkʼʷəŋínʼəŋ (str-son)
Sooke; T'sou-ke (c'awk) (str-soo)
Semiahmoo; Semiahoo; Tah-tu-lo (str-sem)
Samish; Siʔneməš (str-sam)
Lummi; Xwlemi'chosen; xʷləmiʔčósen (str-lum)
Brief Description:
"Northern Straits Salish is the Central Salish language of the southern tip of Vancouver Island, the San Juan Islands, and the mainland immediately to the south of the US-Canadian border. At least three dialects continue to be spoken in a number of small communities. (1) The Saanich dialect on Vancouver Island has a fewer than 20 first-language speakers, the youngest nearly 60 years old. However, there are up to 100 second-language speakers of varying degrees of fluency, and Saanich is frequently used in ceremonies and for tribal identity. A distinctive orthography based on English capital letters has been quite successful; literacy is high among first-language speakers and universal among second-language speakers. The local school has produced books of traditional stories, and there is a significant amount of Saanich material available on the Internet. (2) The Samish dialect of the San Juan Islands has about 5 remaining speakers, but their speech is mixed with other dialects or with Halkomelem and they do not form a distinct speech community. The Samish community in Anacortes, Washington, is developing a second-language teaching programme. (3) The Lummi dialect of the mainland has no active first-language speakers, and if passive first-language speakers exist they are likely to be elderly." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 20
UNESCO Status: Severely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Critically Endangered
Endangerment Status
UNESCO Status: Severely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Critically Endangered
Map of Northern Straits
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