Nǝxʷsƛ̓ay̓ǝmúcǝn (Klallam)

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The Nǝxʷsƛ̓ay̓ǝmúcǝn language is spoken along both sides of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in northwestern Washington and the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island. The language has in the past been listed as a dialect of Northern Straits Salish, but it is different enough to be considered a distinct language.

The writing system presented here is based on the Americanist tradition, as presented by Montler. This orthography also appears to be in use at the Lower Elwha Nation.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.

This page uses no characters outside the Unicode standard. The community names are from Timothy Montler’s word list.

There are only 3 or 4 speakers of Klallam, all of whom live in the United States (Washington Post).

Community Names:

Čiyánəxʷ – Becher Bay
Stətíɬəm – Jamestown
ʔƏʔɬx̣ʷǝ – Elwha (river)
Nəxʷq̓eʔyət – Port Gamble (Little Boston)

Consonants

	bilabial	alveolar	alveolar affricate	palato-alveolar	lateral	palatal	velar	rounded velar	uvular	rounded uvular	glottal
voiceless stop	p	t	c	č			k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
ejective stop	p̓	t̓	c̓	č̓	ƛ̓			k̓ʷ	q̓	q̓ʷ
voiceless fricative			s	š	ɬ			xw	x̣	x̣ʷ	h
nasal / resonant	m	n			l	y		w	ŋ
glottalised nasal/resonant	m̓	n̓				y̓		w̓	ŋ̓

Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i		u
mid	e	ǝ
low		a

Notes

The sounds /k/, /l/, and /e/ are rare.
Stress is indicated with an acúte accent.

Last Update: February 23, 2008