T'Sou-ke dialect

T'Sou-ke, also spelled Sooke /ˈsuːk/ and previously Soke /ˈsoʊk/,^[2] is the dialect of the North Straits Salish language spoken by the T'Sou-ke people of Vancouver Island in British Columba. As of 2014, there were no fluent speakers, although there were at least ten speakers remaining who could somewhat speak and understand the language.^[1]

T'Sou-ke
Sooke
Native to	Canada
Region	southern Vancouver Island
Ethnicity	T'Sou-ke people
Speakers	~10 partial speakers (2014)[1]
Revival	1 learner (2014)[1]
Language family	Salishan Coast Salish Central Coast Salish Straits Salish North Straits Salish T'Sou-ke
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	sook1244  Sooke
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The spelling T'Sou-ke is an exoticization of Sooke, which derives from the name of the area around Sooke Harbor. It may be from the Klallam form /súʔukʷ/ (now pronounced [sóʔokʷ]), or a relic of an earlier Northern Straits pronunciation; the Klallam preserves the older form, where *u → /a/ in all of the Northern Straits dialects. The current Saanich form is SO¸EȻ, pronounced /'saʔəkʷ/^[3] and the Lekwungen form is sáʔəkʷ.^[4]

Phonology

T'Sou-ke has /j/ in some words where other dialects of North Straits Salish have /l/. Wayne Suttles suggested that the dialect has been influenced by the neighboring S'Klallam language, or that some groups of T'Sou-ke differed in speech to others.^[5]