Heiltsuk

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Heiltsuk (pronounced HAIL-tsuk) (also Bella Bella) is a dialect (or a sublanguage) of the North Wakashan (Kwakiutlan) language Heiltsuk-Oowekyala that is spoken by a few Haihai and Bella Bella First Nations peoples around Bella Bella and Klemtu, British Columbia.

It is also the name of the First Nation who speak the language. The Heiltsuk Nation's largest community is Bella Bella.

Language

The Heiltsuk are comprised of the descendants of a number of tribal groups who came together in Bella Bella in the 19th Century and came to be called the Bella Bella Indians. They generally refer to themselves as Heiltsuk.

As with many other Nations on the coast they were subject to drastic population loss as a result of introduced diseases and heightened military conflicts during the fur trade era.

The Heiltsuk language is part of what is called the Wakashan language family. Related to other languages as French is to Spanish, the Heiltsuk is similar to wuikyala and kwakwala. Heiltsuk and Wuikyala are both tonal languages, while kwakwala is not.

External links

[The Heiltsuk-Oweek'ala Language] (YDLI)
[Bibliography of Materials on the Heiltsuk Language] (YDLI)
[The Wakashan Languages]
[Heiltsuk Nation Website]

Bibliography

Boas, Franz. (1928). Bella Bella texts. Columbia University contributions to anthropology (No. 5).
Boas, Franz. (1932. Bella Bella tales. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society (No. 25).
Howe, Darin M. (2000). Oowekyala segmental phonology. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Ottawa).
Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
Poser, William J. (2003). The status of documentation for British Columbia native languages. Yinka Dene Language Institute Technical Report (No. 2). Vanderhoof, British Columbia: Yinka Dene Language Institute.
Rath, John C. (1981). A practical Heiltsuk-English dictionary with a grammatical introduction. Mercury Series paper, Canadian Ethnology Service, (No. 75). Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
Windsor, Evelyn W. (1982). Oowekeeno oral traditions as told by the late chief Simon Walkus, Sr. Hilton, S.; & Rath, J. (Eds.). Mercury series (No. 84). Ottawa: National Museum of Man.

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