Oowekyala
# Oowekyala

Oowekyala /uːˈwiːkjələ/, also Ooweekeeno and ’Wuik̓ala in the language itself, is a dialect (or a sublanguage) of Heiltsuk-Oowekyala, a Northern Wakashan language spoken around Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, spoken by the Wuikinuxv, whose government is the Wuikinuxv Nation.

The name is also spelled Wuikala, Wuikenukv, Oweekeno, Wikeno, Owikeno, Oowekeeno, Oweekano, Awikenox, Oowek'yala, Oweek'ala.

## Sounds

### Consonants

The 45 consonants of Oowekyala:

| | | Labial | Alveolar | Alveolar | Alveolar | Velar | Velar | Uvular | Uvular | Glottal |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | | Labial | central | lateral | sibilant | plain | labial | plain | labial | Glottal |
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | d͡l | d͡z | ɡ | ɡʷ | ɢ | ɢʷ | |
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | t͡ɬ | t͡s | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | |
| Plosive | ejective | pʼ | tʼ | t͡ɬʼ | t͡sʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | |
| Fricative | Fricative | | | ɬ | s | x | xʷ | χ | χʷ | |
| Sonorant | short | m | n | l | | j | w | | | ɦ |
| Sonorant | long | mː | nː | lː | | | | | | |
| Sonorant | glottalized | mˀ | nˀ | lˀ | | jˀ | wˀ | | | ʔ |

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 | Front | Central | Central | Central | Back | Back | Back |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | short | long | glottalized | short | long | glottalized | short | long | glottalized |
| Close | i | iː | iˀ | | | | u | uː | uˀ |
| Mid | | | | ə | | | | | |
| Open | | | | a | aː | aˀ | | | |

## Phonotactics

Oowekyala, like Nuxálk (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)
    [kxlqsɬt͡sxʷ] kxlqsłcxv - you struck a match for me
