she shashishalhem (She Sháshishálhem)

she shashishalhem is a Coast Salishan language spoken in the shíshálh Nation Government District in the Sunshine Coast region in the southwest of British Columbia in western Canada. In 2019 there were just two elderly fluent speakers, and another 30 or so people had some knowledge of the language. Historically their territorty stretched from Jervis Inlet to Howe Sound on the south coast of British Columbia.

Since the early 1970s, efforts have been made to document and revitalize she shashishalhem. Elders of the shíshálh Nation worked with Ron Beaumont, a linguist at the University of British Columbia, to create a dictionary and grammar of the language, and other resources to use in language classes. There are classes in she shashishalhem available at all levels of education for children and adults.

she is also known as Sechelt, Siciatl, Seshelt, Shashishalhem, shíshálh, sháshíshálh or šášíšáɬəm. The names used by the shíshálh Nation are she shashishalhem or She Sháshishálhem. It is closely related to Squamish, Halkomelem and Nooksack.

A practical orthography for she shashishalhem was devised by Randy Bouchard of the British Columbia India Language Project in the 1970s. The alphabet shown below is the slightly revised version of this orthography used in Ronald Beaumont's Sechelt Dictionary, which was published in 2011.

she shashishalhem alphabet and pronunciation

Download an alphabet chart for she shashishalhem (Excel)

Notes

i is pronounced [e] between voiced back consonants and [ʔ], or in unstressed syllables.
e is pronounced [ɪ] after ch, chʼ, k, kʼ, sh and y. After consonants with lip rounding it is pronounced [ʊ], and after h, k, ḵʼ, m, pʼ, tʼ, tlʼ, x̱ and ʔ itʼs pronounced [ʌ]. It is voiceless when between two voiceless consonants.
u = [u] when preceded or followed by a consonant with lip rounding. It is written o in some spelling systems.
a = [ɒ] when preceded by a consonant with lip rounding, and [æ] after the consonants ⟨y, ch, chʼ, sh, k, kʼ⟩.
An acute accent (á) can be used to mark stress
The glottal stop (ʔ) is written ? in some spelling systems, and ʼ is replaced with '

Sample text and phrases in she shashishalhem

Ɂe newlap te shishalh sḵalawmixw kw'e sxwa lhemnexwalap te ḵwaltens t'e stutulaɁelap

Translation

For you, the Sechelt People, in the hope that you will not forget the language of your ancestors.

?imash ?imash - Welcome
mi la - Come in
?iy te kwiy kwiy - Good morning
kw a chxw ?t ?iy - How are you?
?iy mut = I am very good
?ul nu msh chxw - Thank you (sg)
?ul nu msh chalap - Thank you (pl)
tsu chen skwa - I am going
tsu la - Goodbye

Source: https://shishalh.com/culture-language/sechelt-language/

Videos in and about she shashishalhem

Links

Information about the she shashishalhem Language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shíshálh_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sec/
http://www.native-languages.org/sechelt.htm
https://shishalh.com/culture-language/sechelt-language/
https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/1527
https://indigenous-education.sd46.bc.ca/home/indigenous-learning/she-shashishalhem-language-and-culture/

Sechelt dictionary
https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0107947

Salishan languages

Coeur d'Alene, Comox, Halkomelem, Klallam, Lushootseed, Lillooet, Nooksack, Nuxalk, Okanagan, Saanich, Salish, she shashishalhem, Shuswap, Squamish, Nlakaʼpamux (Thompson)

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page created: 04.07.23. Last modified: 01.06.25

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