Mosan
9.9
A group of Native American languages spoken in Washington and British Columbia, including Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan
- noun
- Archaic
:
mosano
- Many words in the Mosan languages feature unique phonetic characteristics distinct from English.
Examples
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The Mosan family of languages includes several dialects used by Indigenous peoples in the region.
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It's the Mosan, not the ghost.
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Linguists study the Mosan languages to understand their structure and evolution.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Mosan = mos + an
Although the suffix '-an' is a productive adjectival/demonym-forming suffix in English, the stem 'Mos' is not a standalone English word nor a recognizable base for learners, so the meaning of 'Mosan' cannot be derived from its parts.
Etymology
Mosan is a modern label used by linguists for a proposed family of languages in the northwest of North America. A helpful way to remember it is to see the ending -an like in American, meaning 'belonging to', so Mosan names languages 'from' that group or region.
