Salish–Spokane–Kalispel language

[3] Dialects are spoken by the Spokane (Npoqínišcn), Kalispel (Qalispé), Pend d'Oreilles, and Bitterroot Salish (Séliš).

[13][14] As of May 2013, the organization Yoyoot Skʷkʷimlt ("Strong Young People") is teaching language classes in high schools.

[15] Salish-language Christmas carols are popular for children's holiday programs, which have been broadcast over the Salish Kootenai College television station,[16] and Salish-language karaoke has become popular at the annual Celebrating Salish Conference, held in Spokane, Washington.

[17][18] As of 2013, many signs on U.S. Route 93 in the Flathead Indian Reservation were including the historic Salish and Kutenai names for towns, rivers, and streams, and the Missoula City Council was seeking input from the Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee regarding appropriate Salish-language signage for the city of Missoula.

(Differences in glottalization do not cause epenthesis, and in long sequences not all pairs are separated, for example in /sqllú/ → [sqəllú] "tale", /ʔlˀlát͡s/ → [ʔəlˀlát͡s] "red raspberry", and /sˀnmˀné/ → [səʔnəmˀné] "toilet".

The post-velars are normally transcribed as uvular consonants: ⟨q, qʼ, χ, qʷ, qʷʼ, χʷ⟩.

[20] The consonant inventory of Spokane differs from Salish somewhat, including plain and glottalized central alveolar approximants /ɹ/ and /ˀɹ/, and a uvular series instead of post-velar.

[20] Spokane words are polysynthetic, typically based on roots with CVC(C) structure, plus many affixes.

For example, in (1) and (2), the single morphemes illustrate these properties rather than it being encoded in the verb as it is in English.

Barry Carlson states that: "Spokane intransitive success forms, created with -el', emphasize that a subject's control requires extra effort in an event and they focus the duration of this effort well before the event beginning.