Liqʼwala

Liqʼwala (also rendered Liq̓ʷala and Lik'wala), is an endangered dialect of Kwakʼwala spoken by the Laich-kwil-tach people of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.[2]

Liqʼwala
Native speakers
12[1]
Wakashan
  • Northern
    • Liqʼwala
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Laich-kwil-tach territory

In 2017, according to Laurie Lewis of the Liqʼwala Language Revitalization Committee, only 12 individuals, all over 70, were fluent Liqʼwala speakers.[1] The Campbell River Mirror reported in 2017 that an attempt would be made to teach the dialect through a Liqʼwala language immersion pilot program:

Lewis says they already have a mentor-apprentice program where a fluent elder works one-on-one with a qualified teacher for 300 hours, and between that elder and teacher, she is confident they could create a three-year pilot program that would provide a full immersion program. “We just want three years to make some fluent speakers so we can save our language,” Lewis says, “and I want to have the conversation about how we can do that. We believe we can do it.”

Phonology
Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
central lateral plain lab. plain lab.
Nasal plain m n
glottalized mˀ nˀ
Plosive voiceless p t c k kʷ q qʷ ʔ
voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ ɢ ɢʷ
ejective pʼ tʼ cʼ kʼ kʷʼ qʼ qʷʼ
Affricate voiceless ts tɬ
voiced dz dɮ
ejective tsʼ tɬʼ
Fricative s ɬ x xʷ χ χʷ h
Approximant plain l j w
glottalized lˀ jˀ wˀ
Vowels[3]
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low a

Orthography

Liq'wala follows an orthography based on Americanist phonetic notation and thus varies significantly from the orthography employed by other dialects of Kwak'wala.[3][4]

Revitalization efforts

In January 2019, School District 72 Campbell River passed a motion to pilot a Liq'wala immersion program at Ripple Rock Elementary in Campbell River, BC.

References
  1. Davies, Mike (2017-04-19). "How do you save a dying language?". Campbell River Mirror. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  2. Inglis, Joy; Assu, Harry (2011-11-01). Assu of Cape Mudge: Recollections of a Coastal Indian Chief. UBC Press. ISBN 9780774843065.
  3. "The Liq̓ʷala Language". www.languagegeek.com. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  4. Adam, Werle (2010). "Appendix A. Kwak̓wala alphabets and transliteration" (PDF). University of Victoria.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.