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Saanich dialect

Saanich
SENĆOŦEN Sənčaθən
Native to Canada, United States
Region British Columbia, Washington
Native speakers
ca. 5 (2014)
SENĆOŦEN
Sometimes NAPA
Official status
Official language in
BOḰEĆEN
SȾÁ,UTW̱
W̱JOȽEȽP
W̱SÍKEM
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog saan1246
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Saanich (also Sənčaθən, written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography) is the language of the First Nations Saanich people. Saanich is a member of a dialect continuum called Northern Straits which is a Coast Salishan language. North Straits varieties are closely related to the Klallam language.

"The W̱SÁNEĆ School Board, together with the FirstVoices program for revitalizing Aboriginal languages, is working to teach a new generation to speak SENĆOŦEN" at the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School.

A Saanich texting app was released in 2012. A SENĆOŦEN iPhone app was released in October 2011. An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at the First Voices SENĆOŦEN Community Portal.

Saanich has no rounded vowels in native vocabulary. As in many languages, vowels are strongly affected by post-velar consonants.

The rounded close high back vowel /u/ is found only in loanwords, such as CEPU (/kəˈpu/) "coat", from French.

/i/ is [ɪ] adjacent to a post-velar or labio-postvelar consonant, or preceding /ʔ/.

/e/ is [e̽]—rarely as low as [ɛ]—adjacent to a post-velar or labio-postvelar consonant or preceding /ʔ/. It is closer—almost [i]—next to a lateral, post-alveolar, or /w/.


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