SENĆOŦEN (Saanich) Example Text

I have included the following excerpt from a story entitled “Raven Abandons his Son”, found in the book “An Outline of the Morphology and Phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish”. In the source, the story is presented in the local version of the Americanist style orthography, in an interlinear format (i.e. each word is written in Saanich, English, and a grammatical description). I have done my best to transcribe it into the modern Elliot orthography.

MEQȻEĆIL I U QUWÍC̸ TŦE SPOL. ṈEN TŦE ṈENṈENEs TŦUNIȽ SPOL. QÁQI. QÁQI OL UWENE STÁṈ S,IȽENs. NEȾE SC̸ÁĆEL I EX̱ITES E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ TŦE MÁNs. EX̱ITES TŦE SNEW̱EL TŦE MÁNs IȻȽ ŦILEĆ E TŦE SKOLEȽ. SU TOLNEW̱Ȼ SU I,ȽENs TŦE MÁNs EȻSI,E SHÁWE. SU TOLNEW̱Ȼ SU I,ȽENs TŦE MÁNs EȻSI,E SQUWÍC̸.

OȽ E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ TŦE MÁNs SUȻȺLs E TŦEȻEĆIL. TUWE X̱ENÁṈ IȻȽ TES TŦUNIȽ TŦE SWIULES E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ TŦE MÁNs. SU OȽs. TES TŦE SPOL E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ SU OȽs. UWENE SXĆITsȻ SȻȽ EL,OLEȽ TŦE SWIULES E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ TŦE SC̸EC̸ȺL. UWENE SXEĆTIṈs E TȽ SPOLȻ SȻȽ ELOL,EȽs TŦE SWIULES SC̸ÁC̸EL. SU YÁs QUWÍC̸ TŦUNIȽ SPOL I U I EL,OLEȽ TŦUNIȽ TŦE ṈENEs I SC̸ÁC̸EL. SU YÁ SQUYEC̸ SU LELÁ,NEṈ TŦUNIȽȻ SI ĆḴȺYE,s TŦE MÁNs TŦE SĆÁNEW̱. ȽÁL TŦUNIȽ E TŦE S,ILEḴSEN TŦE SPOL.

Last Update: Saturday, July 16, 2005