| Halkomelem | ||
|---|---|---|
| Halq'eméylem, Hul'qumi'num', Hǝn'q'ǝmin'ǝm' | ||
| Spoken in | Canada, United States | |
| Region | Southern British Columbia into northern Washington | |
| Total speakers | 200 | |
| Language family | Salishan
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | sal | |
| ISO 639-3 | hur | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Halkomelem (also Halq'eméylem, Hul'qumi'num', and Hǝn'q'ǝmin'ǝm') is a Coast Salishan language of the First Nations around the Fraser River and the southern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Halkomelem is most closely related to Sḵwxwú7mesh snichim (Squamish), Sháshíshálh (Sechelt), and Lhéchalosem (Nooksack).
The word "Halkomelem" is an anglicization for a language with three dialects: Halq'eméylem, the dialect spoken by the upriver Stó:lō of the Fraser Valley, Hǝn'q'ǝmin'ǝm', the dialect of the downriver Stó:lō, and Hulq'umín'um', spoken by six separate but closely related First Nations in the Georgia Strait area: the Chemainus, Cowichan, Halalt, Lake Cowichan, Lyackson, and Penelakut.[1]
In 1977 Brent Galloway of the University of California, Berkeley compiled the first grammar of Upriver (Chilliwack) Halkomelem and developed the now-official Stó:lō orthography. He is currently working on a Halkomelem dictionary.
According to Galloway, some words in Halkomelem "encapsulate the whole knowledge of the culture." The language has a rich oral literature which shows a whole way of looking at the universe that is different from that of English or other European languages.
The Halkomelem language is near extinction largely due to the extensive transportation of First Nations children to residential schools. In 2000, it was estimated that the number of fluent Halkomelem speakers was less than one dozen. Language programs at the Stó:lō Nation, Seabird Island First Nation, and Cowichan First Nation have been developed to save the language. A program aimed at adults at Musqueam is a collaboration between the band and the University of British Columbia First Nations Language Program.
Contents |
| English | Halq'eméylem [2] |
|---|---|
| Hello/Greetings | Kwéleches |
| How are you? | Lichewx we eyo |
| I am fine | Tsel we eyo |
| Thank you | Kw'as hoy |
| What is your name? | Tewat te' skwix |
| 1 | Letse |
| 2 | Isa:le |
| 3 | Lhi:xw |
| 4 | Xe'o:thels |
| 5 | Lheq'a:tses |
| 6 | T'xem |
| 7 | Tho:kws |
| 8 | Teqa:tsa |
| 9 | Tu:xw |
| 10 | O:pel |
The phonology of the Hǝn'q'ǝmin'ǝm' dialect is (based on the charts at LanguageGeek):
| Bilabial | Interdental | Alveolar | Alveolar affricate | Palatal | Lateral | Velar | Labialized Velar | Uvular | Labialized Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | ts | tʃ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | ||
| Ejective | pʼ | tθʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | |||
| Fricative | θ | s | ʃ | ɬ | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | ||
| Resonant | m | n | j | l | w | ||||||
| Glottalized Resonant | m̰ | n̰ | j̰ | l̰ | w̰ |
The vowels are /i u e ə a/, with long counterparts /iː uː eː aː/.
Contents |
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Singular |
Plural |
Halkomelem
Ethnologue entry for Halkomelem, hur
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