Wakashan languages

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Wakashan
Geographic distribution:	British Columbia, Canada
Genetic classification:	One of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions:	Northern Wakashan Haisla Kwak'wala Heiltsuk-Oowekyala Heiltsuk Oowekyala Southern Wakashan Makah Nitinaht Nuu-chah-nulth
Pre-contact distribution of Wakashan languages

Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

As typical of the Northwest Coast, Wakashan languages have large consonant inventories—the consonants often occurring in complex clusters.

Family division

Wakashan consists of 7 languages:

I. Northern Wakashan

1. Haisla (a.k.a. Xaʔislak’ala)

2. Kwak'wala (a.k.a. Kwakiutl, spoken by Southern Kwakiutl, Kwakwaka'wakw people)

A. Heiltsuk-Oowekyala (a.k.a. Bella Bella)

3. Heiltsuk

4. Oowekyala

II. Southern Wakashan

5. Makah

6. Nitinaht (a.k.a. Nitinat, Ditidaht, Southern Nootkan)

7. Nuu-chah-nulth (a.k.a. Nootka, Nutka, Aht, West Coast, T’aat’aaqsapa)

Further reading

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