Thread by @linglore

~2K indigenous Comox (aka K'ómoks) people live near the Strait of Georgia in #BritishColumbia, 🇨🇦#Canada.

Only a few dozen are native speakers of Comox (aka Saɬuɬtxʷ or ʔayʔaǰuθəm), which belongs to the Coast #Salish branch of the #Salishan family of #languages.

~1.5K #Quinault people live in western #Washington, 🇺🇸#USA. The Quinault (Kʷínaył) #language belongs to the Coast #Salish branch of the #Salishan family of #languages. It has no known native speakers left, as the population has shifted to #English.

#Halkomelem is an #indigenous #language with 100 to 300 speakers in #BritishColumbia, 🇨🇦#Canada and #Washington, 🇺🇸#US. It belongs to the Coast #Salish branch of the #Salishan family of #languages.

The #Cowichan are one of several peoples who originally spoke Halkomelem:

#Twana was a Coast #Salish member of the #Salishan #languages spoken around #Puget Sound in #Washington. The last fluent speaker died in 1980. Most of the nine tribes who spoke it are now extinct or subsumed into other groups. ~800 #Skokomish people survive as an organised tribe.

#Lushootseed is a Coast #Salish #language closely related to #Twana. It has no remaining native speakers.

It had several #dialects near #Puget Sound. Chief #Seattle, for whom the city was named, was chief of the #Suquamish and #Duwamish tribes and spoke those two dialects.

#Pentlatch (aka #Puntledge) was closely related to #Comox in the Coast #Salish branch of the #Salishan #languages.

Pentlatch became extinct in the 1940s. Today most Pentlatch people live with the #Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw people in #Qualicum First Nation in #VancouverIsland, 🇨🇦#Canada.

#Sechelt (#Sháshíshálh or #Shashishalhem) has fewer than ten native speakers, all elderly. It's taught as a second #language to children in #Shíshálh communities in #BritishColumbia, 🇨🇦#Canada.

Sechelt belongs to the Coast #Salish branch of the #Salishan #languages.

Less than a decade ago #Squamish (#Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim), a Coast #Salish #language of #BritishColumbia, 🇨🇦#Canada, was nearly extinct with only a handful of elderly speakers left. The Squamish people are working hard to revive it. There are now hundreds of active learners.