Heiltsuk , also known as Haíɫzaqv, Bella Bella and Haihais, is a dialect of the North

Wakashan Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington (state), Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As is ...

(Kwakiutlan) language

Heiltsuk-Oowekyala Heiltsuk-Oowekyala is a Northern Wakashan (Kwakiutlan) language spoken in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, spoken by the Wuikinuxv (Oweekeno) and Heiltsuk peoples. It has two dialects, Heiltsuk (Bella Bella) ...

that is spoken by the Haihai ( Xai'xais) and Bella Bella

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

peoples of the Central Coast region of the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, around the communities of Bella Bella and

Klemtu Klemtu is an unincorporated community on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kitasoo Indian Reserve No. 1. Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians, originally from Kitasu Bay, and t ...

. Bella Bella is the headquarters of the

Heiltsuk Nation The Heiltsuk Nation is a First Nations government in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, centred on Campbell Island in the community of Bella Bella, British Columbia. The Heiltsuk people speak the Heiltsuk la ...

government. Heiltsuk is spoken in the villages of Bella Bella and Klemtu, both located on coastal islands in British Columbia not far from Bella Coola and Ocean Falls. It is one of the four Northern Wakashan languages, the others being Haisla (spoken in Kitimaat), Oowekyala (in Rivers Inlet), and Kwakwala (in Alert Bay, Port Hardy, and various settlements). Heiltsuk is considered to be a dialect of

, which, like neighbouring

Haisla Haisla may refer to: * Haisla people, an indigenous people living in Kitamaat, British Columbia, Canada. * Haisla language, their northern Wakashan language. * Haisla Nation The Haisla Nation is the Indian Act-mandated band government which nominall ...

and Kwak'wala, are part of the Northern Wakashan language group. Heiltsuk has both conversational and ceremonial forms.

Phonology

Consonants

The following is a chart of the obstruents in Heiltsuk. The resonants in intervocalic forms function similarly to vowels, and so will be charted below.

Vowels

Heiltsuk has phonemic short, long, and glottalized vowels. There are mainly three vowel sounds in the Heiltsuk dialect noted as /i, u, a/, although nine other sounds are heard as

allophones In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...

�, ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ə, ɔ, æ, ʌ, ɑ

Tone

Vowels and intervocalic resonants n lcan take on either high or low tone. High tone is marked with an

acute Acute may refer to: Science and technology * Acute angle ** Acute triangle ** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology * Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset. ** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...

for vowels (/á í ú/), and with a dot underneath for resonants (/ṃ ṃ̓ ṇ ṇ̓ ḷ ḷ̓/). They can also be glottalized. The velar and glottal resonants are sometimes

preaspirated In phonetics, preaspiration (sometimes spelled pre-aspiration) is a period of Voice (phonetics), voicelessness or Aspiration (phonetics), aspiration preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent, basically equivalent to an -like sound preceding the ...

References

Bibliography

* Boas, Franz. (1928). ''Bella Bella texts''. Columbia University contributions to anthropology (No. 5). * Boas, Franz. (1932). ''Bella Bella tales''. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society (No. 25). * Howe, Darin M. (2000). Oowekyala segmental phonology. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Ottawa). * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Poser, William J. (2003). The status of documentation for British Columbia native languages. Yinka Dene Language Institute Technical Report (No. 2). Vanderhoof, British Columbia: Yinka Dene Language Institute. *Rath, John C. (1974). ''On the Phonological Description of the Heiltsuk Language''. Dutch Contributions to the 9th International Conference on Salish Languages. * Rath, John C. (1981). ''A practical Heiltsuk-English dictionary with a grammatical introduction''. Mercury Series paper, Canadian Ethnology Service, (No. 75). Vol. i & ii. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada. * Windsor, Evelyn W. (1982). ''Oowekeeno oral traditions as told by the late chief Simon Walkus, Sr.'' Hilton, S.; & Rath, J. (Eds.). Mercury series (No. 84). Ottawa: National Museum of Man.

External links

The Heiltsuk-Oweek'ala Language
(YDLI)

(YDLI)

Heiltsuk Nation Website

Heiltsuk Tourism Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heiltsuk Language + Wakashan languages Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations languages in Canada Central Coast of British Columbia Endangered Wakashan languages