Chemakum language

Chemakum
Chemakum
Aqoʞúlo /ʔaˈxʷóqʷolo/ (autoethnonym)
Native to	Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Ethnicity	Chimakum
Extinct	1 imperfect speaker (Louise Webster) in the 1920s, 3 imperfect speakers (including L. Webster and her brother) in 1890
Language family	Chimakuan Chemakum;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xch
Linguist List	xch
Glottolog	chim1310
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Chemakum (/ˈtʃɛməkʌm/ CHEM-ək-um; also written as Chimakum or Chimacum) is an extinct Chimakuan language once spoken by the Chemakum, a Native American group that once lived on western Washington state's Olympic Peninsula. It was closely related to the Quileute language, also extinct but undergoing revitalization in the early 21st century. In the 1860s, Chief Seattle and the Suquamish people killed many of the Chimakum people. In 1890, Franz Boas found out about only three speakers, and they spoke it imperfectly, of whom he managed to gather linguistic data from one, a woman named Louise Webster (her brother was another speaker of the three).^[1] Several years later in the 1920s, Manuel J. Andrade cross-checked some of Boas' materials with the same speaker. A few semi-speakers continued until the 1940s on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula, between Port Townsend and Hood Canal.

The name Chemakum is an anglicization of the Salishan name for the Chimakum people, perhaps old Twana čə́mqəm (currently čə́bqəb [t͡ʃə́bqəb]).

^ ^a ^b Ruby, Robert H.; John Arthur Brown (1992). A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 22–23, 28. ISBN 9780806124797.

[ruby-1] Ruby, Robert H.; John Arthur Brown (1992). A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 22–23, 28. ISBN 9780806124797.

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