kids encyclopedia robot

Liqʼwala facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Liqʼwala
Native speakers 12  (2017)
Language family
Wakashan
  • Northern
    • Liqʼwala
Laich-kwil-tach territory

Liqʼwala (also rendered Liq̓ʷala and Lik'wala), is an endangered dialect of Kwakʼwala spoken by the Laich-kwil-tach people of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

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 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

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain sibilant lateral plain lab. plain lab.
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless p t ts tɬ c k kʷ q qʷ ʔ
voiced b d dz dɮ ɡ ɡʷ ɢ ɢʷ
ejective pʼ tʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʼ kʼ kʷʼ qʼ qʷʼ
Fricative s ɬ x xʷ χ χʷ h
Sonorant plain m n l j w
glottalized mˀ nˀ lˀ jˀ wˀ
Vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low a

Orthography

Liq'wala follows an orthography based on Americanist phonetic notation and thus varies significantly from the orthography employed by other dialects of Kwak'wala.

Liqʼwala alphabet
Uppercase A Ə B C C̓ D Dᶻ E G Gʷ Ǧ Ǧʷ H I K K̓
Lowercase a ə b c c̓ d dᶻ e g gʷ ǧ ǧʷ h i k k̓
Uppercase Kʷ K̓ʷ L L̓ Ł Latin capital letter lambda.svg ƛ ƛ̓ M M̓ N N̓ O P P̓ Q
Lowercase kʷ k̓ʷ l l̓ ł λ ƛ ƛ̓ m m̓ n n̓ o p p̓ q
Uppercase Qʷ Q̓ Q̓ʷ S T T̓ U W W̓ X Xʷ X̌ X̌ʷ Y Y̓
Lowercase qʷ q̓ q̓ʷ s t t̓ u w w̓ x xʷ x̌ x̌ʷ y y̓ ʔ

Revitalization efforts

In January 2019, School District 72 Campbell River passed a motion to pilot a Liq'wala immersion program at Ripple Rock Elementary in Campbell River, BC.

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Liqʼwala Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.