Kwakʼwala dialect of British Columbia, Canada From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[2]
| Liqʼwala | |
|---|---|
| Liq̓ʷala | |
| Native to | Canada |
| Region | British Columbia |
| Ethnicity | Laich-kwil-tach |
Native speakers | 12 (2017)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
Laich-kwil-tach territory | |
In 2017, according to Laurie Lewis of the Liqʼwala Language Revitalization Committee, only 12 individuals, all over 70, were fluent Liqʼwala speakers.[1] 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.”
 | This article should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used - notably kwk for Kwakiutl. (October 2021) |
Liq'wala follows an orthography based on Americanist phonetic notation and thus varies significantly from the orthography employed by other dialects of Kwak'wala.[3][4]
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.
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