Klallam language
| Klallam | |
|---|---|
| nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əmúcən | |
English-Klallam street signs in Port Angeles | |
| Pronunciation | /nxʷst͡ɬʼajˀˈmut͡sn/ |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Washington |
| Extinct | 2014, with the death of Hazel Sampson |
| Revival | Spoken through youth programs |
Salishan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | clm |
| Glottolog | clal1241 |
| ELP | Klallam |
Pre-contact distribution of the Klallam people and language | |
Klallam is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Klallam, Clallam, Ns'Klallam or S'klallam (endonym: nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əmúcən, /nxʷst͡ɬʼajˀˈmut͡sn/), is a Straits Salishan language historically spoken by the Klallam people at Becher Bay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. The last native speaker of Klallam as a first language died in 2014, but there is a growing group of speakers of Klallam as a second language.
Klallam is closely related to the Northern Straits Salish dialects, Sooke, Lekwungen, Saanich, Lummi, and Samish but the languages are not mutually intelligible. There were several dialects of Klallam, including Elwha Klallam, Becher Bay Klallam, Jamestown S'Klallam and Little Boston S'Klallam.