Oowekyala is a dialect (or a sublanguage) of Heiltsuk-Oowekyala, a Northern Wakashan

Wakashan languages

Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca....

 (Kwakiutlan) language spoken around Rivers Inlet

Rivers Inlet

Rivers Inlet is a fjord in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, its entrance from the Dean Channel near that fjord's mouth, about southwest of the community of Bella Coola and about north of the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the western entrance of the...

 and Owikeno Lake

Owikeno Lake

Owikeno Lake, also Owekeeno Lake, Owekano Lake, Oweekayno Lake and other spellings , is a large fjord lake in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It connects to the head of Rivers Inlet by the short Wannock River...

 in the Central Coast region

British Columbia Coast

The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....

 of the Canadian province

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

 of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, spoken by the Wuikinuxv people

Wuikinuxv people

The Wuikinuxv people, also known as the Wuikenukv, Oweekeno, Wikeno, Owikeno, Oowekeeno, Oweekano, Awikenox, or Rivers Inlet people, are an Indigenous First Nations people of the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located around Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake, to the...

, whose government is the Wuikinuxv Nation

Wuikinuxv Nation

The Wuikinuxv Nation, also known as the Oweekeno Nation, is a First Nation with territory in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, in the area south of Bella Bella and north of Queen Charlotte Strait. The Wuikinuxv people a.k.a. the Oweekeno people reside in the...

.

Consonants

The 45 consonants of Oowekyala:

		Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...		Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....		Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...		Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
			central	lateral		plain	labial	plain	labial
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...	short	m	n
	long	mː	nː
	glottalized	mˀ	nˀ
Plosive	voiced	b	d			ɡ	ɡʷ	ɢ	ɢʷ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ	kʷʰ	qʰ	qʷʰ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ			kʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʷʼ	ʔ
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...	voiced		d͡ʒ	d͡ɮ
	aspirated		t͡sʰ	t͡ɬʰ
	ejective		t͡sʼ	t͡ɬʼ
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...	voiced									ɦ
	voiceless		s	ɬ		x	xʷ	χ	χʷ
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...	short			l	j		w
	long			lː
	glottalized			lˀ	jˀ		wˀ

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 Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...			Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...			Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
	short	long	glottalized	short	long	glottalized	short	long	glottalized
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...	i	iː	iˀ				u	uː	uˀ
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...				ə
Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...				a	aː	aˀ

Syllables

Oowekyala, like Nuxálk

Nuxálk language

Nuxálk is a Salishan language spoken in the vicinity of the Canadian town Bella Coola, British Columbia by approximately 20-30 elders...

(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)

External links

• The Heiltsuk-Oweek'ala Language
• Bibliography of Materials on the Heiltsuk Language
• The Wakashan Languages
• map of Northwest Coast First Nations (including Ooowekyala)