The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages that are spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula.

Chimakuan languages

• Chemakum (a.k.a. Chimakum or Chimacum)
• Quileute (a.k.a. Quillayute)

Chemakum is now extinct. It was spoken until the 1940s on east side of the Olympic Peninsula between Port Townsend and Hood Canal. The name Chemakum is an Anglicized version of a Salishan word for the Chemakum people, such as the nearby Twana word Čə́bqəb [ʧə́bqəb].

Quileute is now severely endangered. It is spoken by a few people south of the Makah on the western coast of the Olympic peninsula south of Cape Flattery at La Push and the lower Hoh River. The name Quileute comes from Kʷoʔlí·yot’ [kʷoʔlíːjot̕] the name of a village at La Push.

Bibilography

• Andrade, Manuel J. (1933). Quileute. New York: Columbia University Press. (Extract from Handbook of American Indian Languages (Vol. 3, pp. 151-292); Andrade's doctoral dissertation).
• Andrade, Manuel J. (1953). Notes on the relations between Chemakum and Quileute. International Journal of American Linguistics, 19, 212-215.
• Andrade, Manuel J.; & Frachtenberg, Leo J. (1931). Quileute texts. Columbia University contributions to anthropology (Vol. 12). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Boas, Franz. (1892). Notes on the Chemakum language. American Anthropologist, 5, 37-44.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.