Liqʼwala (also rendered and Lik'wala), is an endangered dialect of

Kwakʼwala Kwakʼwala (), or Kwak̓wala, previously known as Kwakiutl (), is the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Indigenous language spoken by the Kwakwakaʼwakw (which means "those who speak Kwakʼwala") in Western Canada. Kwakʼwala be ...

spoken by the

Laich-kwil-tach Laich-kwil-tach (also spelled Ligwilda'xw), is the Anglicization of the Kwak'wala autonomy by the "Southern Kwakiutl" people of Quadra Island and Campbell River in British Columbia, Canada. There are today two main groups (of perhaps five origi ...

people of

Vancouver Island, British Columbia Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

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

language immersion Language immersion, or simply immersion, is a technique used in bilingual language education in which two languages are used for instruction in a variety of topics, including math, science, or social studies. The languages used for instruction ...

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

Orthography

Liq'wala follows an orthography based on

Americanist phonetic notation Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA), the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet or the American Phonetic Alphabet (APA), is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American ...

and thus varies significantly from the orthography employed by other dialects of Kwak'wala.

Revitalization efforts

In January 2019,

School District 72 Campbell River School District 72 Campbell River is a school district on Vancouver Island in British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. ...

passed a motion to pilot a Liq'wala immersion program at Ripple Rock Elementary in Campbell River, BC.

References

External links

Liq̓ʷala interactive alphabet
Endangered Wakashan languages First Nations languages in Canada Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast {{IndigenousAmerican-lang-stub