This excerpt is from a story told by Kʷiistux̣ (Charlie Jones Sr.) to Bernice Naʕłna Touchie in 1977. Appearing in IJAL’s North West Coast Texts, it is entitled “Stealing Daylight”. In the current orthography, initial letters are typically left un-capitalised even when beginning a sentence or in a proper noun. However, the names Kʷiistux̣ and Naʕłna have been capitalised as they appear so in the original.

Please note that many characters may not display properly, as they are built up of a base letter plus a modifying diacritic mark (a non-spacing accent). If you are using an up-to-date Unicode font (such as those available here at Languagegeek), and your browser is fully OpenType compatible, the accent placements should be correct.

wistʕeekubtuw sac̓iiyaʔk. wik̓eet ƛ̓uubʕaat wik̓eet c̓iidax̣kʷ ʔiš buułuk. baqsiłaawkid hideeyp yałtaqƛuwis wiiqseeʔaq. ʔax̣ci qʷaabtuw waaʔaqs wik̓eetuw ƛ̓isʕaak sac̓cax̣taakuw wiiqsii ʔadčiiłaq wik̓eet buułšiƛ c̓iidax̣šƛ. łakaaw dubisaaʔtx̣aq haaʔubaatx̣aƛquy hayaaʔak ʔuuyuq yałteeypaawquy ʔuduuƛ wikx̣qʔa t̓aaquws dačiił x̣ayaaƛquy yaayaaqtšaawquy yałʔiquy haaʔubatax̣ees. yaʕi qiičiƛ qʷaa t̓apatšiƛ̓ƛ duudubaačx̣ ʔadux̣saatax̣quy.

“hišu, hiyoʔaaƛ̓eedicx̣ qʷaa daačukšaaƛ̓eedicx̣ yałtaqšƛuwis wiiqseeʔaq yaqx̣iit̓aqad łaakʷiiłiit yubłaabt hidaačƛ haaʔubaatx̣. yaqx̣aqad c̓awadukšƛaaw ʔadeeʔaqad dubgisaatx̣aqad baadukʷiƛquyid hiidasiyix̣ yałtaqšƛuwis wiiqseeʔaq yaqict̓aqad łaakqʷadk.”

ʔayibitšƛuw c̓aawidukšƛ ʔuuc̓idaaqk yuwaaƛ c̓awaawiƛ̓ƛ t̓at̓aapt, “hišu, yaačšʔaƛ̓eedicx̣.”

yubłʔaq č̓abeyuq ʔuduuƛ dašukqa wiiqsii ʔaadsas čabuł ƛ̓iiʔakquy. “duubee dubisaatx̣iik duubiiƛ̓asuwič yaačšiƛ ʔuuʔaap̓atuł duubquyid hidasƛ yałtaqšƛuwis wiiqseeʔaq.”