Oowekyala

Oowekyala /uːˈwiːkjələ/,^[2] also Ooweekeeno and ’Wuik̓ala in the language itself, is a dialect (or a sublanguage) of Heiltsuk–Oowekyala, a Northern Wakashan language spoken around Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, spoken by the Wuikinuxv, whose government is the Wuikinuxv Nation.

Oowekyala
Ooweekeeno
’Wuik̓ala
Pronunciation	[ʔuwíkʼala]
Region	Northern Central Coast Regional District, British Columbia, Canada
Ethnicity	Wuikinuxv people
Native speakers	6 (2014, FPCC)[1]
Language family	Wakashan Northern Heiltsuk–Oowekyala Oowekyala
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	oowe1239
Map of Wakashan languages

The name is also spelled Wuikala, Wuikenukv, Oweekeno, Wikeno, Owikeno, Oowekeeno, Oweekano, Awikenox, Oowek'yala, Oweek'ala.

Phonology

Consonants

The 45 consonants of Oowekyala:

		Labial	Alveolar			Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			central	lateral	sibilant	plain	labial	plain	labial
Plosive	voiced	b	d	d͡l[3]	d͡z	ɡ	ɡʷ	ɢ	ɢʷ
	voiceless	p	t	t͡ɬ	t͡s	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	t͡ɬʼ	t͡sʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ
Fricative				ɬ	s	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ
Sonorant	short	m	n	l		j	w			ɦ
	long	mː	nː	lː
	glottalized	mˀ	nˀ	lˀ		jˀ	wˀ			ʔ

Phonologically, affricates are treated as stops, and nasals and approximants are treated as sonorants. Additionally, /ɦ/ and /ʔ/ are treated as sonorants.

Vowels

Oowekyala has phonemic short, long, and glottalized vowels:

	Front			Central			Back
	short	long	glottalized	short	long	glottalized	short	long	glottalized
Close	i	iː	iˀ				u	uː	uˀ
Mid				ə
Open				a	aː	aˀ

Phonotactics

Oowekyala, like Nuxálk (Bella Coola), allows long sequences of obstruents, as in the following 7-obstruent word:

[t͡sʼkʷʼχtʰt͡ɬʰkʰt͡sʰ]  'the invisible one here-with-me will be short'   (Howe 2000: 5)

[kxlqsɬt͡sxʷ] kxlqsłcxv - you struck a match for me ^[4]