Halkomelem ( ;Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh in the Upriver dialect, in the Island dialect, and in the Downriver dialect) is a Salishan language spoken by various First Nations peoples of the British Columbia Coast. It is spoken in British Columbia, ranging from southeastern Vancouver Island from the west shore of Saanich Inlet northward beyond Gabriola Island and Nanaimo to Nanoose Bay and including the Lower Mainland from the Fraser River Delta upriver to Harrison Lake and the lower boundary of the Fraser Canyon.
Classification In the classification of Salishan languages, Halkomelem is a member of the Central Salish branch. There are four other branches of the family: Tsamosan, Interior Salish, Bella Coola, and Tillamook. Speakers of the Central and Tsamosan languages are often identified in ethnographic literature as "Coast Salish".
Name The word "Halkomelem" is an anglicization of the name .
Dialects The language has three distinct dialect groups:
Hulquminum / Hulʼqʼumiʼnumʼ (Island dialect) or "Cowichan" (spoken by separate but closely related First Nations on Vancouver Island and adjoining islands on the west side of the Strait of Georgia: the Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo), Snaw-naw-as (Nanoose) – the former "Saalequun tribe" is part of both First Nations, Stzꞌuminus (Chemainus), Cowichan Tribes, Lake Cowichan (Tsꞌuubaa-asatx), an originally Southern Wakashan-speaking peoplethe Tsꞌuubaa-asatx – usually known as "Lake Cowichan" and called by the Ditidaht c̓uubaʕsaʔtx̣ – are therefore often confused with the neighboring Cowichan Tribes (Quwꞌutsun Mustimuhw / Quwꞌutsun Hwulmuhw) – "People of the Warm Land", who speak a "Hulꞌqumiꞌnum (Island)" dialect of Halkomelem (part of the Coast Salish languages), but regarding treaty negotiations with the government, the Tsꞌuubaa-asatx are still part of the "Hulꞌqumiꞌnum Treaty Group". Currently, they are trying to revive their original culture and language with the support of the Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht peoples.), Halalt, Lyackson, Penelakut,Hulꞌquimꞌnum Treaty Group and Lamalchi. Hunʼqumiʼnum / hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (Downriver dialect) or "Musqueam" (spoken by seven First Nations in the Lower Mainland in and around Vancouver, as well as in the Fraser River Delta and the lower reaches of the Fraser River; which consider themselves linguistically and culturally related ethnicities – but do not identify as Stó꞉lō (although in the literature mostly attributed to these), but today often refer to themselves as "Musqueam", the Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Kwantlen, Tsleil-Waututh, New Westminster Indian Band, Kwikwetlem (Coquitlam), Katzie, and the now extinct Snokomish (Derby people).) Halqemeylem / Halqʼeméylem (Upriver dialect) or "Stó꞉lō" (spoken by today 24 Sto꞉lo First Nations upstream along the Fraser River from Matsqui on to Yale; the historic "Tsꞌelxwéyeqw" (Chilliwack) (today's First Nations Aitchelitz, Shxwhá꞉y Village, Skowkale, Soowahlie, Squiala, Tzeachten, and Yakweakwioose), "Pelóxwlh Mestiyexw" (Pilalt/Pilʼalt) (today's First Nations Cheam, Kwaw-kwaw-Apil, and Skwah), "Tiyt" (Tait) or "Upper Stó꞉lō" (today's First Nations Popkum, Skawahlook, Chawathil, Seabird Island, Shxwꞌowꞌhamel, Union Bar, Peters, and Yale), "Pepa꞉thxetel" or "Semà꞉th (Sumas)", and the "Sqʼéwlets/Sqwōwich" (Scowlitz) (Sqꞌewlets First Nation) tribes.
The language differences (namely, in phonology and lexicon) are greatest between the Island and Upriver dialects, with the Downriver dialect (especially the Tsawwassen First Nation) providing a central link between the other two. The diversity of the Halkomelem dialects is noted to be the result of complex social and economic forces and linguistic change, as many Island people crossed the Georgia Strait to camp along the Fraser River (in both the Downriver and Upriver areas) for the summer runs of salmon. Arranged marriages between children in different language areas was also common, helping to establish a regional social network in the Strait of Georgia–Puget Sound Basin.
Use and revitalization efforts
The Halkomelem language is near extinction. In 2000, it was estimated that the number of fluent Halkomelem speakers was fewer than twenty-five. Most are middle-aged or older, and few are monolingual, as there was a flood of English-speaking settlers in the region in the mid-19th century. Among these, towards the end of the century, the distinguished scientist Maud Menten, spent part of her childhood in Harrison Mills. She learned Halkomelem from a schoolfriend, and was possibly the only biochemist in history to speak it. Language programs at the Stó꞉lō Nation, Seabird Island First Nation, and Cowichan First Nation have been developed to save the language. A program aimed at adults at Musqueam is a collaboration between the band and the University of British Columbia First Nations and endangered languages program.
In September 2009, the University of California Press published American linguist Brent Galloway's Dictionary of Upriver Halkomelem.
A Halkomelem iPhone app was released in 2011. This was followed by an Android version was released in 2016. The app was developed by the FirstVoices website. There are 1754 words archived and 690 phrases archived on the FirstVoices website.
As of 2014, 263 fluent speakers had been reported. In 2014, the number of Head Start Programs was 21, and this included a language-nest immersion preschool.
Phonology Note: All examples are drawn from the Downriver dialect of Halkomelem spoken by the Musqueam band. Relevant differences in the phonology of the Island and Upriver dialects are noted at the foot of the phoneme charts.Suttles, Wayne. (2004). Musqueam Reference Grammar. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 3–22.
Vowels Halkomelem has five vowel phonemes. Long and short vowels (but not schwa) contrast. Vowel length is written in the native orthography as or after the vowel letter depending on the orthography.
Front Central Back (rounded) short long short long short long High Mid Low
Upriver Halkomelem dialects also have a mid back vowel .
All five vowel phonemes vary considerably phonetically. The phoneme /i/ has three distinct allophones. It is realized as following unrounded uvulars. It is realized as with a central off-glide preceding both unrounded and rounded uvulars. Elsewhere, it is realized as low or high . The /e/ is realized as a low to mid-front vowel, usually between or high . The /a/ is low and central to back, often close to . The /u/ is high, back, and rounded, realized somewhere between low or high .
When stressed, the schwa /ə/ appears in most environments as a mid-central, but it is fronted and raised before /x/, approaching ; before /j/ it is also fronted, approaching ; before /w/ it is lower and back, approaching ; and before rounded velars it is mid-back, close to . Unstressed /ə/ can be as high as before /x/ and /j/, and before labialized velars it is realized as or . This phoneme can also be assimilated to a stressed /e/ or a stressed /a/ in an adjacent syllable, by vowel harmony.
Consonants Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal median sibilant lateral plain labial plain labial Plosive/Affricate voiceless ejective voiced Fricative voiceless Sonorant voiced glottalized
The stops and affricates are grouped together for simplification purposes. Of recent and/or peripheral phonemic status. /b d d͡ʒ f ɣ/ occur only in a few borrowed and imitative words. The five glottalized resonants pose a problem in phonemic analysis, but occur frequently. Occurs in the Upriver dialect.
The plain plosives are less aspirate before vowels than in English, but they are more aspirate finally. Although the glottalized plosives are ejectives, they are not usually strongly released.
Suttles (2004) makes several interesting notes on the Musqueam obstruents. The labiodental fricative /f/ occurs in recent loans from English and their derivatives such as in káfi "coffee" and in číf "chief". The stops /t/ and /tʼ/ are articulated at a point slightly forward of that of the usual English /t d/, while the affricates c /ts/ and cʼ /tsʼ/ are somewhat more retracted than these same English /t d/. The affricate has only been recorded in "English people" and "English (language)". The glottalized lateral affricate /ƛʼ/ is produced when the apex of the tongue at the onset is in the position for the lateral release rather than for a /t/, and there is less friction produced than with other affricates. The phonemes /k/ and /kʼ/ occur in "baby talk" as substitutes for /q/ and /qʼ/. The uvular fricative x̌ is produced with a great deal of friction and/or uvular vibration, and it contrasts strongly with the velar fricative /x/.
There is variation in the extent to which Musqueam speakers glottalize resonants. Phonetically, there are glottalized resonants (e.g. ) and resonants preceded or followed by glottal stops (e.g. ), however, Suttles (2004) finds no instances of contrastive distribution among any of the three. He puts forth two explanations for these facts: that there are two sequences of phonemes, /Rʔ/ and /ʔR/, with overlapping allophones, or that there is a single phoneme that is realized in three distinct ways. In preferring the latter explanation, Suttles holds that there may be five glottalized resonant phonemes in the dialect, although Downriver speakers glottalize resonants very lightly, making them difficult to detect.
In most Upriver dialects, glottalized resonants do not exist, while in Island dialects, they are more sharply articulated (tenseness is a key feature of Island speech). As is the case with many other phonological features, Downriver Halkomelem stands as a link between the other dialect areas, and it is possible that its speakers vary depending on Island or Upriver influence. Other differences between dialects include: Island and Downriver have both /n/ and /l/, while Upriver has merged these as /l/. Upriver Halkomelem lacks the post-vocalic glottal stops of the other two dialects, and shows compensatory lengthening in that environment. Additionally, Upriver dialects have greater pitch differences, and some words are differentiated by pitch alone.
Stress and pitch Based on Suttles' (2004) recordings of several speakers of the Downriver (Musqueam) dialect, stress in Halkomelem consists of an increase in intensity and an accompanying rise in pitch. The three levels of stress are primary (marked /׳/), secondary (marked /`/), and weak (unmarked). There is one vowel with primary stress in every full word, however, its occurrence is not completely predictable.
In uninflected words with more than one vowel, the primary stress usually falls on the first vowel (e.g. as in "hand" and "house"). There are exceptions to this general pattern (e.g. as in "enemy"). As shown by the preceding example, if the word contains both a full vowel and one or more schwas, the stress is placed on the full vowel. Again, there are exceptions to this pattern, such as in words with a final glottal stop that cannot be preceded by schwa (e.g. as in "one").
Although minimal pairs contrasting stress are rare, they do exist in the language. The primary stress of a verb root consisting of a resonant, a schwa, and an obstruent followed by the suffix /-t/ "transitive" can fall on either the root or the suffix, allowing for minimal pairs such as "salvage it" and "finish it all."
The secondary stress appears most often in words that are composed of a root that has retained its stress and a stressed suffix (e.g. as in "help me"). It may be the case, however, that the secondary stress recorded by Suttles (2004) in words like is actually a falling pitch; this seems to be characteristic of the last stressed syllable of a phrase in the language. Additional analyses of the sentential intonation patterns are needed.
Phonotactics