Heiltsuk-Oowekyala language facts for kids

Heiltsuk-Oowekyala is a special language spoken by the Heiltsuk and Oowekyala (also known as Oweekeno) peoples. They live along the Central Coast of British Columbia, a province in Canada. This language belongs to the Northern Wakashan family.

The language has two main parts, called dialects: Heiltsuk and Oowekyala. The Heiltsuk dialect is sometimes called Bella Bella, and Oowekyala is also known as Wuikyala. What makes them unique is that they are tonal languages. This means the meaning of a word can change depending on the pitch or tone of your voice when you say it.

This language doesn't have a traditional name. So, experts who study languages call it Heiltsuk-Oowekyala. The group Ethnologue refers to the whole language as "Heiltsuk." They call the Bella Bella dialect "Northern Heiltsuk" and the Oowekyala dialect "Southern Heiltsuk."

The Heiltsuk dialect is spoken by the Bella Bella and Haihais peoples. The Oowekyala dialect is spoken by the Wuikinuxv people.

Sounds of the Language

Heiltsuk-Oowekyala has some very interesting sounds. Like the Nuxálk language, it can have many consonant sounds in a row without any vowels in between.

For example, in the Oowekyala dialect, there's a word that has seven consonant sounds together:

• [t͡sʼkʷʼχtʰt͡ɬkʰt͡sʰ]  'the invisible one here-with-me will be short'

Another example is the word:

• kxlqsłcxʷ - which means 'you struck a match for me'.

These examples show how different the sounds can be from English!

How the Language is Written

The Heiltsuk Education Cultural Center has a special way of writing the language. This writing system was created by John C. Rath, a language expert, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Heiltsuk Alphabet

Here is the alphabet used for the Heiltsuk dialect:

If some of the special letters are hard to type, like λ, ƛ, or ƛ̓, you can use dh, th, or t̓h instead. Also, ɫ can be replaced with lh.

Oowekyala Alphabet

Here is the alphabet used for the Oowekyala dialect: