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The Salishan (also '''Salish''') languages are a group of languages of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States . They are characterised by Agglutinativity and astonishing Consonant clusters—for instance the Nuxálk word (IPA: ) meaning 'he had had a bunchberry plant' has 13 consonants in a row with no vowels. The terms ''Salish'' and ''Salishan'' are used interchangeably by Salishan linguists and anthropologists. The name ''Salish'' is actually the name of the language of ''Salish'' tribe in Montana. The name was later extended by linguists to refer to other related languages. Many languages do not have self-designations and instead have specific names for local dialects as the local group was more important culturally than larger tribal relations. All Salishan languages are Endangered —some extremely so with only three or four speakers left. Practically all languages only have speakers who are over sixty years of age, and many languages only have speakers over eighty. FAMILY DIVISION The Salishan language family consists of twenty-three languages. Below is a list of Salishan languages, dialects, and sub-dialects. This list is a linguistic classification that may not correspond to political divisions. Many Salishan groups consider their variety of speech to be a separate language rather than a Dialect . Pentlatch, Nooksack, Twana, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, Cowlitz, and Tillamook are now Extinct . Additionally, the Lummi, Semiahmoo, Songhees, and Sooke dialects of Northern Straits are also extinct. GENETIC RELATIONS It has been proposed that the Salishan languages may be related to Wakashan and Chimakuan languages in a hypothetical Mosan family. There have also been efforts to relate the Language Isolate Kutenai (Kootenai) to Mosan. FAMILY FEATURES
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