Tolowa language

Tolowa
Native to	USA
Region	southwest Oregon
Ethnicity	one thousand Tolowa (2000); one hundred Chetco (1977)
Extinct	1 elderly semispeaker in 2001
Revival	growing number with limited competence
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Pacific Coast Athabaskan Tolowa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: tol – Tolowa ctc – Chetco
Glottolog	tolo1259

The Tolowa (Taa-Laa-Wa) language (also called Chetco-Tolowa, or Siletz Dee-ni) is a member of the Pacific Coast subgroup of the Athabaskan language family. Together with two other closely related languages (Rogue River Athabaskan and Upper Umpqua) it forms a distinctive Oregon Athabaskan cluster within the subgroup.

Geographic distribution

At the time of first European contact Tolowa was spoken in several large and prosperous village communities along the Del Norte County coast in the far northwestern corner of California and along the southern coast of adjacent Curry County, Oregon. Today the term Tolowa (or sometimes Smith River) is used primarily by those residing in California, most of whom are affiliated with Tolowa Dee-Ni' Nation. Those residing in Oregon, most of whom are affiliated with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz southwest of Portland, where their ancestors were removed in the 1850s (Beckham 1971), refer to themselves as Chetco, Tututni, or Deeni.

For details of the linguistic documentation of Chetco-Tolowa and a survey of Oregon Athabaskan phonology and grammar, see Golla (2011:70-75).

Tolowa language revitalization

Loren Bommelyn, a fluent speaker and linguist, has published several pedagogical books and teaches young Tolowa students in Crescent City, California.

Three alphabets have been used since the formation of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Language program, sponsored by the Del Norte Indian Welfare Association in 1969. The first was a "Tolowa version of the Uni-fon alphabet', written by hand. A new Practical Alphabet was devised in 1993 for purposes of typing on the computer. In 1997, Loren Bommelyn developed an alphabet which did not require a barred l or nasal hook characters called the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Alphabet.

Siletz Dee-ni language revitalization

Siletz Dee-ni is a form of Tolowa historically spoken by members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians on the Siletz Indian Reservation in Oregon. According to a report by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, it is the last of many languages spoken on the reservation and was said in 2007 to have only one living speaker. However, the language has since been at least partially revived, and in some areas, ‘many now text each other in Siletz Dee-ni’.

Courses for 6th- through 8th-graders have been offered at Oregon's Siletz Valley Charter School. Alfred "Bud" Lane has gathered 14,000 words of Siletz Dee-ni, a variety of Chetco-Tolowa "restricted to a small area on the central Oregon coast," in an online audio/picture dictionary for the use of the community.

Bibliography

• Beckham, Stephen Dow (1971). Requiem for a People: The Rogue River Indians and the Frontiersmen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Bommelyn, Loren (1995). Now You're Talking Tolowa. Arcata: Humboldt State University, Center for Indian Community Development.
• Collins, James (1998). Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses. London: Routledge
• Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-052-026667-4.

External links

• Siletz Tribal Language Project
• Tolowa language, at native-languages.org
• Tolowa language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Tolowa Tribe of the Smith River Rancheria, official website
• Tah-Ah-Dun Indian Magnet Charter School
• OLAC resources in and about the Tolowa language
• OLAC resources in and about the Chetco language