X̄a'islak̓ala

X̄a'islak̓ala Text

X̄a'islak̓ala or Haisla (ISO 639-3 has) is a Wakashan language spoken on the British Columbia mainland around the Douglas Channel, across from the Queen Charlotte Islands. There are two main dialects spoken, Kitamaat and Kitlope.

I have come across at least three writing systems for Haisla. The first is used by the community as shown on the Wisenis Haislakala site. The second is a system developed by, I believe, by Hein Vink, and it closely resembles the community orthography. The third is the orthography as given in Lincoln and Rath 1986 (L&R).

The Canadian Census counts 175 people with knowledge of Haisla in 2016. According to Howe and Cook, there are 200 speakers.

Contents

X̄a’islak̓ala Consonants

Community Orthography

	bilabial	alveolar	alveolar affricate	lateral	velar (y‑offglide)	velar rounded	uvular	uvular rounded	glottal
voiceless stop	b	d	z	λ	g	gʷ	ḡ	ḡʷ	'
aspirated stop	p	t	c	ƛ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
ejective stop	p̓	t̓	c̓	ƛ̓	k̓	k̓ʷ	q̓	q̓ʷ
voiceless fricative			s	ɫ	x	xʷ	x̄	x̄ʷ	h
nasal / resonant	m	n		l	y	w
glottalized	m̓	n̓		l̓	y̓	w̓
syllabic n/r	em	en		el	(i)	(u)			(a)
glottalized syllabic n/r	em̓	en̓		el̓	'i	'u			'a

X̄a’islak̓ala Vowels

Community Orthography

	front	central	back
high	i		u
mid		e
low		a	aa (long)

X̄a’ʼislak̓ala Consonants

Vink's Orthography

	bilabial	alveolar	alveolar affricate	lateral	velar (y‑offglide)	velar rounded	uvular	uvular rounded	glottal
voiceless stop	b	d	z	dh	g	gᵒ	ḡ	ḡᵒ	ʼ
aspirated stop	p	t	c	th	k	kᵒ	q	qᵒ
ejective stop	p̓	t̓	c̓	t̓h	k̓	k̓ᵒ	q̓	q̓ᵒ
voiceless fricative			s	lh	x	xᵒ	x̄	x̄ᵒ	h
nasal / resonant	m	n		l	y	w
glottalized	m̓	n̓		l̓	y̓	w̓

X̄a’ʼislak̓ala Vowels

Vink's Orthography

	front	central	back
high	i		u
low		a

X̌àh̓isl̩ak̓ala Consonants

Lincoln & Rath

	bilabial	alveolar	alveolar affricate	lateral	velar (y‑offglide)	velar rounded	uvular	uvular rounded	glottal
voiceless stop	b	d	z	λ	g	gʷ	ǧ	ǧʷ
aspirated stop	p	t	c	ƛ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
ejective stop	p̓	t̓	c̓	ƛ̓	k̓	k̓ʷ	q	q̓ʷ
voiceless fricative			s	ɬ	x	xʷ	x̌	x̌ʷ
nasal / resonant	m	n		l	y	w			h
glottalized	m̓	n̓		l̓	y̓	w̓			h̓
syllabic n/r	m̩	n̩		l̩	i	u			a
glottalized syllabic n/r	m̩̓	n̩̓		l̩̓	i̓	u̓			a̓

Notes

In one analysis (L&R), the vowels /i/, /u/, and /a/ are considered to be syllabic counterparts to /y/, /w/, and /'/.
Stress is marked with an acute accent á, In L&R a grave accent à, and in Vink with a straight quote mark '.
There are two digraphs 〈au〉 [ɔ] and 〈ai〉 [ɛ]—in Vink these are 〈e〉 and 〈o〉.