Hul’q’umi’num’ – Hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓

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The term Halkomelem is a term used by linguists to group together a number of closely related dialects spoken in the lower mainland and southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The dialects can be divided into three broad groupings: Hul’q’umi’num’ or ‘Cowichan’ (Vancouver Island, the territory includes the cities of Duncan and Nanaimo); Hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ also called ‘Musqueam’ (around the mouth of the Fraser River); and Halq’eméylem or ‘Stó:lō’ (along the Fraser river from Matsqui to Yale). Please note that the language names in ‘quotes’ are in common use in English, but may inaccurately represent the nations in question. I will use the English term Halkomelem to represent all three languages together.

Each language has its own distinctive orthography and sound system. One can see the types of sound changes that separate the languages by their names. Notice in the sound charts below that certain sounds present in one language may be missing from the others. These missing sounds are indicated by dashes.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.

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The Canadian Census does not individually count Halkomelem speakers. According to Howe and Cook, there are 125 speakers.

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Hul’q’umi’num’ Consonants

	bilabial	interdental	alveolar	alveolar affricate	palato-alveolar	lateral	palatal	velar	rounded velar	uvular	rounded uvular	glottal
voiceless stop	p	tth	t	ts	ch			k	kw	q	qw	’
ejective stop	p’	tth’	t’	ts’	ch’	tl’		-	kw’	q’	qw’
voiceless fricative		th		s	sh	lh		-	hw	x	xw	h
nasal / resonant	m		n			l - -	y		w
glottalised nas./res.	(m’)		(n’)			(l’)	(y’)		(w’)

Hul’q’umi’num’ Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i - ii		ou – oo
mid	e - ee	u - -	-
low		a - aa

Notes

Where the underlying sound is a glottalised resonant: /l̓/, /m̓/, /n̓/, /w̓/, /y̓/, I have written that sound as: l’, m’, etc. From what I have seen of the standard orthography, these sounds can also be written ’l, ’m, etc., depeding on (I believe) whether the preceding vowel is stressed or not. As I am unclear of this rule, I have written everything with the apostrophe after the resonant.
There are several diphthongs: ay, ey, uy. The sequence ‹o’› is written for /uw’/ word finally.
In the official orthography, glottal stops should be written at the beginning of words. In this language, words do not begin with vowels.
There are cases where two consonants occur side-by-side, and there may be some ambiguity as to the correct pronunciation. For example: shw could be either s+hw or sh+w. I have used a middot to separate such consonant paris where necessary.
Prior to 2003, /x/ was written ‹ḧ› and /lh/ was ‹l̈›. The ejective consonants were written: p̲ t̲t̲h̲ t̲ t̲s̲ c̲h̲ t̲l̲ k̲w̲ q̲ q̲w̲

Hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm Consonants

	bilabial	interdental	alveolar	alveolar affricate	palato-alveolar	lateral	palatal	velar	rounded velar	uvular	rounded uvular	glottal
voiceless stop	p	-	t	c	č			k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
ejective stop	p̓	t̓ᶿ	t̓	c̓	-	ƛ̓		-	k̓ʷ	q̓	q̓ʷ
voiceless fricative		θ		s	š	ł (ɬ)		x	xʷ	x̌ (χ)	x̌ʷ (χʷ)	h
nasal / resonant	m		n			l - -	y		w
glottalised nas./res.	m̓		n̓			l̓	y̓		w̓

Hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i - i:		u – u:
mid	e - e:	ǝ - -	-
low		a - a:

Notes

x̌ and ł are occasionally written χ and ɬ.
Stressed vowels may be indicated with an acúte accent.

Halq’eméylem Consonants

	bilabial	interdental	alveolar	alveolar affricate	palato-alveolar	lateral	palatal	velar	rounded velar	uvular	rounded uvular	glottal
voiceless stop	p	-	t	ts	ch			k	kw	q	qw	’
ejective stop	p’	th’	t’	ts’	ch’	tl’		k’	kw’	q’	qw’
voiceless fricative		th		s	sh	lh		x	xw	x̱	x̱w	h
nasal / resonant	m		-			l - l:	y		w
glottalised nas./res.	-		-			-	-		-