Native American Languages Native American Nations What's new on our site today!

Tututni Language (Rogue River Athapaskan, Mishikhwutmetunne, Coquille)

Tututni is an Athabascan language of southwest Oregon. A second language, Upper Coquille, is considered by most linguists to be a dialect of Tututni. (The word "upper" does not have anything to do with the language, but refers to the original location of the people on the upper part of the Coquille River. The "Lower Coquille," or Miluk Coos, speak a Penutian language completely unrelated to Upper Coquille.) Like many other West Coast Indian tribes, the Tututni and Coquille Athabaskans were relocated to the Siletz Reservation in Oregon during the 1800's, where they were merged with other native peoples and their languages rapidly vanished. Today the Coquille language is no longer spoken and the Tututni language is only spoken by a few elders, but some young people are working to learn their ancestral language again.

Tututni Language Resources

Our Online Tututni Materials

Tututni Vocabulary:
List of vocabulary words in the Tututni language, with comparison to words in other Athabaskan languages.

Tututni Language Lessons and Linguistic Descriptions

A Tututni Language Lesson
Audio files of Tututni words being spoken.

The Siletz Athabaskan Language:
Homepage of the tribal language revival program of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

Elder Helps Save Tribal Language
Article on one of the few remaining speakers of Tututni, and the tribe's language revival effortsi.

Coquille
Profile of the Coquille tribe with a map and language chart.

Tututni

Coquille:
Tututni demographic information from the Ethnologue of Languages.

Pacific Northwest Language Domains:
Language map of Rogue River and other Northwest Coast languages of Washington, Oregon and California.

Tututni Language Tree

Coquille Language Tree:
Theories about Tututni's language relationships compiled by Linguist List.

Chasta Costa Language Structures:
Chasta Costa linguistic profile and academic bibliography.

West Coast Athapascan Vocabulary:
Early 20th-century wordlists of Hupa, Tolowa and Tututni.

Links, References, and Additional Information

Lenguas Athabascanas de Oregon:
Information on the Tolowa and Tututni languages in Spanish.
Tututnis:
Tututni links.
Tututni Tribe:
Tututni Indian books.

Back to the Indian Tribes index
Back to our Indian Facts for kids

Native Languages

Indian art Indian jewelry Indian words Indian tattoos

Would you like to sponsor our work on the Tututni language?