Wakashan, n. and a.
(wɑːˈkæʃən)
[f. *Wakash n. (and a.) + -an.]
A. n. A family of North American Indian languages spoken in parts of British Columbia and Washington state, including Kwakiutl and Nootka; occas. a speaker of any of these languages. B. adj. Belonging to or characteristic of (speakers of) this language group.
| 1892 J. W. Powell Indian Linguistic Families N. of Mexico (52nd U.S. Congress 1 Sess. House Misc. Doc. No. 31) 128 Wakashan family... The above family name is based upon a vocabulary of the Wakash Indians, who, according to Gallatin..‘inhabit the island on which Nootka Sound is situated’. 1910 J. R. Swanton in F. W. Hodge Handbk. Amer. Indians II. 895/1 Wakashan dwellings were large structures of huge cedar beams and planks. 1929 [see Mosan n.]. 1965 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics X. 83 Swadesh undertook the comparison of..Chimakuan and Wakashan in 1953 and made impressionistic or ad hoc reconstructions for Proto-Mosan and the subincluded families. 1976 M. R. Haas in T. A. Sebeok Native Langs. Americas I. i. 27 Later..Swadesh abandoned the idea of a special group known as Mosan and removed Wakashan and placed it in another large construct along with Eskimo-Aleut... The matter is still far from being resolved. |