Liqʼwala (also rendered Liq̓ʷala and Lik'wala), is an endangered dialect of Kwakʼwala spoken by the Laich-kwil-tach people of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.[2]

Liqʼwala
Native speakers	12[1]
Language family	Wakashan Northern Liqʼwala
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Laich-kwil-tach territory

In 2017, according to Laurie Lewis of the Liqʼwala Language Revitalization Committee, only 12 individuals, all over 70, were fluent Liqʼwala speakers.[1] The Campbell River Mirror reported in 2017 that an attempt would be made to teach the dialect through a Liqʼwala language immersion pilot program:

Lewis says they already have a mentor-apprentice program where a fluent elder works one-on-one with a qualified teacher for 300 hours, and between that elder and teacher, she is confident they could create a three-year pilot program that would provide a full immersion program. “We just want three years to make some fluent speakers so we can save our language,” Lewis says, “and I want to have the conversation about how we can do that. We believe we can do it.”

Phonology

Orthography

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Liq'wala follows an orthography based on Americanist phonetic notation and thus varies significantly from the orthography employed by other dialects of Kwak'wala.[3][4]

Liqʼwala alphabet

Uppercase	A	Ə	B	C	C̓	D	Dᶻ	E	G	Gʷ	Ǧ	Ǧʷ	H	I	K	K̓
Lowercase	a	ə	b	c	c̓	d	dᶻ	e	g	gʷ	ǧ	ǧʷ	h	i	k	k̓
Uppercase	Kʷ	K̓ʷ	L	L̓	Ł		ƛ	ƛ̓	M	M̓	N	N̓	O	P	P̓	Q
Lowercase	kʷ	k̓ʷ	l	l̓	ł	λ	ƛ	ƛ̓	m	m̓	n	n̓	o	p	p̓	q
Uppercase	Qʷ	Q̓	Q̓ʷ	S	T	T̓	U	W	W̓	X	Xʷ	X̌	X̌ʷ	Y	Y̓
Lowercase	qʷ	q̓	q̓ʷ	s	t	t̓	u	w	w̓	x	xʷ	x̌	x̌ʷ	y	y̓	ʔ

Revitalization efforts

In January 2019, School District 72 Campbell River passed a motion to pilot a Liq'wala immersion program at Ripple Rock Elementary in Campbell River, BC.

References

External links

• Liq̓ʷala interactive alphabet