Oowekyala facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Oowekyala |
|
|---|---|
| ’Wuik̓ala | |
| Region | Northern Central Coast Regional District, British Columbia, Canada |
| Ethnicity | Wuikinuxv people |
| Native speakers | 6 (2014, FPCC) |
| Language family |
Wakashan
|
Oowekyala (pronounced Oo-wee-KY-ah-lah) is a special language spoken by the Wuikinuxv people. It's also called Ooweekeeno or ’Wuik̓ala in its own language. Oowekyala is a dialect, which means it's a unique version of a larger language called Heiltsuk-Oowekyala.
This language belongs to the Northern Wakashan family. It is spoken in a beautiful area of British Columbia, Canada. You can find the Wuikinuxv people and their language around Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake on the Central Coast. Sadly, very few people speak Oowekyala today, making it an endangered language.
The name of the language can be spelled in many ways. Some common spellings include Wuikala, Wuikenukv, Oweekeno, and Owikeno.
Unique Sounds of Oowekyala
Every language has its own set of sounds. Oowekyala has many interesting and unique sounds. These sounds are different from what you might hear in English.
Consonant Sounds
Oowekyala has a large number of consonant sounds. There are 45 different consonants in this language! This is much more than in English. These sounds include different types of "stops," which are sounds made by completely blocking air, and "fricatives," which are sounds made by partly blocking air.
Some sounds are made with the lips (labial). Others are made with the tongue near the teeth (alveolar). There are also sounds made further back in the throat (velar and uvular). Some sounds are "glottal," made in the voice box.
Vowel Sounds
Just like consonants, Oowekyala has special vowel sounds. Vowels are the open sounds we make, like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'. In Oowekyala, vowels can be short, long, or "glottalized." Glottalized means they have a special catch or break in the sound, made in your throat.
How Syllables Work
A syllable is a unit of sound in a word, like "syl-la-ble" has three syllables. Oowekyala has a very interesting way of putting sounds together. It can have words with many consonant sounds in a row. This is quite different from English, where words usually have vowels between consonants.
For example, some Oowekyala words can have a long chain of consonant sounds without any vowels in between. This makes the words sound very unique and can be tricky for new speakers to learn.
