FirstVoices: Ktunaxa Community Portal

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	Ktunaxa Community Portal


	kiʔsuk kyukyit hu sukiǂq̓ukni kin wamiǂkiǂ Ktunaxa ʔamakʔis.

"First Words"

¢amna
To be few

¢ikni·qna
To do something very thoroughly, to take time doing something.

pi¢aknana
Teaspoon

ʔa·k̓akuwaǂ
Redtop grass

ʔumk̓uǂ
Pond-lily (yellow)

App Now Available!

Ktunaxa app

About The Ktunaxa people

The Ktunaxa people have lived on the lands adjacent to the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers and the Arrow Lakes of British Columbia for more than 10,000 years. Their traditional territory extends approximately 70,000 square kilometres within the Kootenay region of BC (southeastern corner) and also included areas in Alberta, Montana, Washington and Idaho.The Ktunaxa people travelled within the territory according to the seasons and availablity of food.

When the Europeans settled in the Kootenay region, around the 1800s, the Indian Reserves were created and lead to the present Indian Bands. There are seven bands within the nation that can be found in the traditional territory.

Five of the bands are found in British Columbia and two are located in the United States.

ʔakisq̓nuk- Columbia Lake Band (Windermere, BC);

ʔaq̓am- St. Mary's Band (Cranbrook, BC);

ʔakink̓umǂasnuqǂiʔit- Tobacco Plains Band (Grasmere, BC);

yaqan nuʔkiy- Lower Kootenay Band (Creston, BC);

kyaknuqǂiʔit- Shuswap Band (Invermere, BC);

ʔaq̓anqmi- Kootenai Tribe of Idaho (Bonners Ferry, Idaho);

k̓upawi¢q̓nuk- Ksanka Band (Elmo, Montana)

Ktunaxa is a language isolate, meaning that it is one of a kind and unrelated to any other language in the world. Currently it is in danger of becoming extinct, with fewer and fewer fluent elders living within the community. The Ktunaxa people have now taken the initiative to combine the existing knowledge passed down from our elders and apply it to modern technology, to ensure that the language survives.

The Ktunaxa Language app is a media-rich bilingual dictionary and phrase collection comprised of words and phrases archived at the online Aboriginal language database FirstVoices.com.

Status of Our Language

Name of Archive
Ktunaxa

Language Family
Ktunaxa

Country
Canada

Region
South Eastern British Columbia

# of Words Archived
2500

# of Phrases Archived
1114