Southern Lushootseed

Southern Lushootseed, also called Twulshootseed (txʷəlšucid) or Whulshootseed (xʷəlšucid) in the Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie dialects, is the southern dialect of Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language in western Washington State. It was historically spoken by the Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Suquamish, Duwamish, Nisqually, and Squaxin Island tribes. The last native speaker was Ellen Williams (1923–2016) and her death rendered the language extinct.

Whulshootseed is taught at the Muckleshoot Language Program of the Muckleshoot Tribal College in Auburn, Washington, at a local school, and by the Puyallup Tribal Language Program. A 1999 video, Muckleshoot: a People and Their Language profiles the Muckleshoot Whulshootseed Language Preservation Project.

See also

• Lushootseed language

References

External links

• The Whulshootseed alphabet
• Placenames, Squaxin Island tribe
• Puyallup Tribal Language Program, Whulshootseed learning materials