Liqʼwala

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
Liq̓ʷala
Native to	Canada
Region	British Columbia
Ethnicity	Laich-kwil-tach
Native speakers	12 (2017)[1]
Language family	Wakashan Northern Kwakʼwala Liqʼwala
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
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

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			plain	sibilant	lateral		plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	ts	tɬ	c	k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	dz	dɮ		ɡ	ɡʷ	ɢ	ɢʷ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ	tɬʼ	cʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ
Fricative				s	ɬ		x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	h
Sonorant	plain	m	n		l	j		w
	glottalized	mˀ	nˀ		lˀ	jˀ		wˀ

Vowels^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Orthography

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.