|
"First Words"
čičyɛ
granny
čɩtqamɛn
kitchen knife
čɩčǰik̓ʷ saplən
fry bread
čɩmamenayɛ
cooler/fridge
čik̓aʔəmɛn
frypan
App Now Available!
Sliammon app
|
About The ɬəʔamɛn people
The ɬəʔamɛn people lived along both sides of the Northern Strait of Georgia in the province of British Columbia, but now the majority of the population resides on Sliammon Reserve No.1.
Here in the northern stretches of the Strait of Georgia there are a myriad of inlets, bays, river estuaries and sheltered coves along which the ancestors of the ɬəʔamɛn people made their homes. They would build their villages as close as possible to the natural resources utilized by the ɬəʔamɛn people. Some of the primary settlements were Theodosia, Desolation Sound, Coast of the Malaspina Strait, Powell River (Tiskw'at), and many islands within the Strait of Georgia.
Ethnographic research maintains that the ɬəʔamɛn people occupied two permanent settlements. One by which was used in the fall and winter months; the other in spring and summer. Some of these places were simply over-night campsites, other became locations for seasonal villages where spacious houses were constructed from the giant red cedars that met the shore.
Coastal Aboriginal people were struck with waves of contagious diseases such as influenza, measles, small pox, tuberculosis. It was during this time that all aspects of the Tla'Amin language, culture, history, knowledge was threatened and almost extinct! Very few people survived, let alone capable of fighting long and hard enough to effectively pass their knowledge onto their children. By the turn of the century, ɬəʔamɛn, Klahoose, Homalco's numbers were less than 300 individuals, approximately 50% of them under the age of 18. The mandatory residential school system had already been in effect for more than 40 years, and the punitive powers of the 'Oblates or Black Robes' were at their highest. All of these things combined to almost annihilate the Coast Salish traditional knowledge, beliefs, and practices.
The Sliammon 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
Sliammon
|
Language Family
Salish
|
Country
Canada
|
Region
Sunshine Coast
|
# of Words Archived
3592
|
# of Phrases Archived
2386
|
|
Related Links
|
|
