T'Sou-ke, also spelled Sooke and previously Soke , is the dialect of the

North Straits Salish language Northern Straits Salish (also referred to as North Straits Salish) is a language composed of several Mutual intelligibility, mutually-intelligible dialects within the Coast Salish languages, Coast Salish language family spoken in western Washingt ...

spoken by the T'Sou-ke people of

Vancouver Island 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 ...

in British Columba. As of 2014, there were no fluent speakers, although there were at least ten speakers remaining who could somewhat speak and understand the language. The spelling ''T'Sou-ke'' is an exoticization of ''Sooke'', which derives from the name of the area around Sooke Harbor. It may be from the Klallam form (now pronounced ), or a relic of an earlier Northern Straits pronunciation; the Klallam preserves the older form, where *u → /a/ in all of the Northern Straits dialects. The current Saanich form is , pronounced and the

Lekwungen The Lekwungen peoples (natively lək̓ʷəŋən) are a Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria area. They are represented by the Songhees First Nation, Songhees and Esquimalt First ...

form is .

Phonology

T'Sou-ke has in some words where other dialects of North Straits Salish have .

Wayne Suttles Wayne Suttles (1918–2005) was an American anthropologist and linguist. He was the leading authority on the ethnology and linguistics of the Coast Salish people of the Northwest Coast of North America. Biography Wayne Suttles grew up on a dai ...

suggested that the dialect has been influenced by the neighboring S'Klallam language, or that some groups of T'Sou-ke differed in speech to others.

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Phonology

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Further reading