Wakashan

[ wah-kash-uhn, waw-kuh-shan ]

noun

1. a family of Indigenous languages spoken in British Columbia and the state of Washington and including especially Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth.

Wakashan

/ wɑːˈkæʃən; ˈwɔːkəˌʃɑːn /

noun

1. a family of North American Indian languages of British Columbia and Washington, including Kwakiutl and Nootka
2. a speaker of any of these languages

Word History and Origins

Origin of Wakashan¹

First recorded in 1890–95; coined by J.W. Powell from Wakash, used as the name of a Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) subgroup but originally a misapplication of Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) wa·ka·š “bravo!” + -an

Example Sentences

The consortium, led by an engineer, Michael Running Wolf, is developing an automatic speech recognition A.I. for Wakashan languages, a family of endangered languages spoken among several First Nations communities.

From New York Times

Yet, with a disregard of the laws of nomenclature, the Ethnological Bureau at Washington has only recently announced its intention of knowing them officially by the meaningless title of "Wakashan."

From Project Gutenberg

On the west, in British Columbia, the Athapascan tribes nowhere reach the coast, being cut off by the Wakashan, Salishan, and Chimmesyan families.

From Project Gutenberg

AHT, a confederacy of twenty-two tribes of North American Indians of the Wakashan stock.

From Project Gutenberg

The researchers believe automatic speech recognition models can preserve fluency in Wakashan languages and revitalize their use by future generations.

From New York Times