Chinookan dialects

[Alan H. Hartley]

Francisc Czobor wrote:

> As far as I know, there is a Chinookan language family (belonging,
> according to some authors, to a Penutian language phylum), comprising 6
> main dialects: Lower Chinook or Proper Chinook, Clatsop, Cathlamet,
> Clackamas, Wasco, and Wishram.
>
> Regarding the grouping of these dialects into languages, Proper Chinook and
> Clatsop are assigned to the Lower Chinook language, Wasco and Wishram to
> Upper Chinook language, whereas Cathlamet and Clackamas are assigned
> differently by different authors, either to Lower or to Upper Chinook.

Michael Silverstein writes (1990, in Hdbk. N. Amer. Indians 7:533) "the
Chinookan family..consisted of two quite distinct branches, Lower
Chinookan (or Chinook proper [including Clatsop]) and Upper Chinookan, a
dialect chain of languages including Cathlamet, Multnomah, and Kiksht.
Kiksht..was spoken by the Clackamas..and by groups further upriver in
the Plateau."

Marianne Mithun (1999, in Langs. Native N. Amer. 382) says "Kathlamet
has traditionally been considered a dialect of Upper Chinook, but work
by Silverstein..and Hymes..indicates that it was not mutually
intelligible with the Kiksht dialects. It represents a language in
itself, intermediate between Lower and Upper Chinook linguistically as
well as geographically."

David French & Kathrine French write (1998, in HNAI 12:360) "Upper
Chinook is a chain of languages and dialects formerly scattered for
nearly 200 miles east of (modern) Astoria [Oregon] on both sides of the
Columbia River and in a nearby section of the lower Willamette and
Clackamas rivers... The Upper Chinook-speaking peoples described in this
chapter [i.e., Wasco, Wishram, and Cascades] refer to their language as
as Kiksht. (The term includes the extinct Clackamas dialect)... There
are negligible differences between Wasco and Wishram speech, and only a
slightly greater difference between the Cascades dialect and the
Wasco-Wishram dialect... Multilingualism has long been characteristic of
these peoples, largely because they functioned in the region as traders
and as hosts to visitors. In the nineteenth century, Sahaptin, Nez
Perce, Chinook Jargon, and English were widely known and spoken. A few
Chinookans also knew Plains sign language. By 1993, Wasco-Wishram was
the only remaining dialect of Chinookan; a few Wascos, Wishrams, and
linguists could speak it."

Alan

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