Sechelt language

The Sechelt language, Sháshíshálh or Shashishalhem (IPA: [ʃáʃíʃáɬəm]), is a Coast Salish language spoken by the Shishalh (Sechelt) people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. It is spoken in the area now called southwestern British Columbia, Canada, centred on their reserve communities in the Sechelt Peninsula area of the Sunshine Coast.

Sechelt
Sháshíshálh
Pronunciation	[ʃáʃíʃáɬ]
Native to	Canada
Region	British Columbia
Ethnicity	1,200 Sechelt people (2014, FPCC)[1]
Native speakers	4 (2014, FPCC)[1]
Language family	Salishan Coast Salish Central Sechelt
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sec
Glottolog	sech1246[2]

In 1999, the language was spoken by fewer than 40 elderly people.[3] A grammar of the language by linguist Ron Beaumont was published in 1985.[4]

They now only have 7 elderly/fluent speakers, but have many teachers that teach children from preschool all the way through till high school. UBC, Vancouver and Okanagan offers language courses, that give students the opportunity to learn various languages, Shashishalhem being one of the few[5]

In 2014, the Coastal Corridor Consortium, "an entity made up of board members from First Nations and educational partners to improve aboriginal access to and performance in postsecondary education and training", created a Sechelt Nation language certificate.[6]

Sechelt is most closely related to Squamish, Halkomelem, and the Nooksack.

Although endangered, the Sechelt people, with help from others, have reclaimed 603 phrases and 5659 words in total.[5]

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	rounded	plain	rounded
Stop	voiceless	p	t			k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ			kʼ	kʼʷ	qʼ	qʼʷ
Affricate	voiceless		ts		tʃ
	ejective		tsʼ	tɬʼ	tʃʼ
Nasal		m	n
Fricative			s	ɬ	ʃ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
Approximant				l	j		w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə
Open		a

The four vowel sounds may also have the allophones [æ, ɪ~ʊ~ʌ, e, o].[7]

See also

• Shishalh
• Sechelt, British Columbia

References

1. Sechelt at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Sechelt". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 487. ISBN 978-0-521-29875-9.
4. Beaumont, Ron (1985). She Shashishalhem, The Sechelt Language: Language, Stories, and Sayings of the Sechelt Indian people of British Columbia. Penticton, B. C.: Theytus Books.
5. null, null. "she shashishalhem Community Portal". www.firstvoices.com. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
6. Wood, Stephanie (2014-01-22). "Despite limited resources, indigenous-language programs persevere in B.C." Georgia Straight, Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
7. Beaumont, Ronald C. (2011). Sechelt Dictionary.

External links

• First Nations Languages of British Columbia Sechelt page
• OLAC resources in and about the Sechelt language