Haíɫzaqvḷa / Heiltsuk Language

Heiltsuk (ISO 639-3 hei) is a northern Wakashan language spoken mid-way up the Pacific coast of British Columbia. The writing system presented here is based on the practical orthography as shown in Rath 1981. The current form is used in Kitasoo and Bella Bella, with several modifications. It is a compromise of sorts between the linguistic and B.C.-style practical orthographies. Some its most notable features are: using 〈v〉 as a diacritic for rounded velars and uvulars, and the complex forms of vocalic nasals and resonants, like 〈ṃ̓〉.

The Canadian Census counts 125 people with knowledge of Haíɫzaqvḷa in 2016. According to Howe and Cook, there are 200 speakers.

Haíɫzaqvḷa Consonants

	bilabial	alveolar	alveolar affricate	lateral	velar (y‑offglide)	velar rounded	uvular	uvular rounded	glottal
voiced stop	b	d	z	λ	g	gv	ǧ	ǧv
voiceless stop	p	t	c	ƛ	k	kv	q	qv
ejective stop	p̓	t̓	c̓	ƛ̓	k̓	k̓v	q̓	q̓v
voiceless fricative			s	ɫ	x	xv	x̌	x̌v
nasal / resonant	m	n		l	y	w			h
glottalized n/r	m̓	n̓		l̓	y̓	w̓			h̓
syllabic n/r	ṃ	ṇ		ḷ
syllabic high-tone n/r	ṃ́	ṇ́		ḷ́
glottalized syllabic n/r	ṃ̓	ṇ̓		ḷ̓

Haíɫzaqvḷa Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i í i̓		u ú u̓
mid		e é
low		a á a̓

Notes

1. Rath 1981 differs from the community orthography in the way laterals are written: λ→dh, ƛ→th, ƛ̓→t̓h, ɫ→lh.
2. The capital forms of λ and ƛ are upside-down capital ‘Y’ and ‘Y’ with a bar.
3. The acute accent á is high tone. The apostophe accent a̓ indicates a glottalised vowel.