Many nations speak one of the dialects classified as Lushootseed. The language is divided into two broad variants: northern and southern, and is spoken in the land between Puget Sound and the Cascade mountains. Northern nations include: Nuwhaha, Mesekwegwils, Chobaabish, Smaliwhu, Miskaiwhu, Swinomish, Nookachamps, Sauk, Suiattle, Squiuamish, Kikiallus, Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Kwehtlmamish, Staktalijamish, and Skykomish. In the southern portion of Lushootseed territory are: Sammamish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Saktamish, Stkehlmish, Duwamish, Stkamish, Yilalkoamish, Skopamish, Smulkamish, Puyallup, Tkwakwamish, Homamish, Squaxin, Shotlemamish, Sahewamish, Tapeeksin, Squiaitl, Nusebchatl, Stehcass, Nisqually and Meshal.

The orthography used in this language follows the Americanist linguistics tradition and has been adapted from Hess.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventionss 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.

Notes

• The occasional long vowel is shown with a raised dot: long i is ‹i·›.
• Primary stress (when marked) is shown with an acúte accent, secondary stress is written with a gràve accent.

Last Update: February 23, 2008