lɪʃ< Southern Interior Salish séʔliš Flatheads
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Salish or Salishan (ˈseɪlɪʃ, ˈseɪlɪʃən, ˈsæl-) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a family of North American Indian languages spoken in the northwestern US and W Canada |
| 2. | (functioning as plural) the Salish the peoples collectively who speak these languages, divided in Canada into the Coast Salish and the Interior Salish |
| Salishan or Salishan | |
| —n | |
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| a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal. |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
salish
linguistic grouping of North American Indian tribes speaking related languages and living in the upper basins of the Columbia and Fraser rivers and their tributaries in what are now the province of British Columbia, Can., and the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. They are commonly called the Interior Salish to distinguish them from their neighbours, the Coast Salish tribes who resided on the Northwest Pacific Coast. The Salish tribes comprised mainly the Coeur d'Alene, Columbia, Cowlitz, Flathead, Kalispel, Lake, Lillooet, Nespelem, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Shuswap, Sinkaietk (southern Okanagon), Spokan, Thompson, and Wenatchee peoples, all of whom spoke various Salishian languages. Salish was formerly a native name for the Flathead alone; by the mid-20th century, however, it was more often broadly applied to the entire group
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