Dialect

From Cascadia

[edit] Pacific Northwest English

The Cascadia region posesses a distinct dialect of the English language, refered to as "Pacific Northwest English". It is generally considered a neutral dialect of English, with essentially no vowel stress. The lack of accent is due to many formative factors, but is generally attributable to the long-term isolation of a largely constant population, with significant immigration occuring only in recent decades.

In addition to the phonological inventory, Pacific Northwest English also retains words from the Chinook Jargon - a trade language widely used from the San Fransisco Bay area to Southeast Alaska before English became the lingua franca. Most speakers of Pacific Northwest English know what the terms skookum, potlatch, muckamuck, and saltchuck mean, and many also know various terms due to local placenames - cultus, illahee, lolo, lummi, mowich, siwash, skookumchuck, tatoosh, tillicum, or tyee.