Halkomelem language
| Halkomelem | |
|---|---|
| Halq̓eméylem / Hul̓q̓umín̓um̓ / hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ | |
| Native to | Canada, United States |
| Region | Southwestern British Columbia into Northern Washington |
| Ethnicity | 24,000 Sto:lo, Cowichan, Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo), Halalt, others (1997–2014) |
|
Native speakers
|
260 in 35 of 42 communities in Canada (2014, FPCC) 25 in the US (1997) |
|
Salishan
|
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| NAPA | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | halk1245 |
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Halkomelem /hɒlkəˈmeɪləm/ (Halq̓eméylem in the Upriver dialect, Hul̓q̓umín̓um̓ in the Island dialect, and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ in the Downriver dialect) is a language of various First Nations peoples 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.
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".
The word "Halkomelem" is an anglicization for the language, which has three distinct dialect groups: (1) an Island group, spoken by six separate but closely related First Nations on Vancouver Island and adjoining islands on the west side of the Strait of Georgia: the Snuynemuxw, Nanoose, Stz'uminus (Chemainus), Cowichan, Halalt, Lake Cowichan, Lyackson, and Penelakut, (2) a Downriver group, spoken by the Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Kwantlen, Tsleil-Waututh, Qayqayt, Kwikwetlem, and Katzie First Nations, and (3) an Upriver group, the Upper Sto:lo, spoken from the Matsqui First Nation on upstream to Yale.
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