Nuxalk

[Ross Clark (FOA DALSL)]

Just some things I came across to add to this discussion:

Wednesday, January 14 [1835]: Busy with the Billichoola all day. They call
themselves from their river (Nowhalik) No-whalikimich...  (Journals of
William Fraser Tolmie, p.301)

This suggests the basic word is a geographical one; the -imich looks like
the Salish ethno-suffix. And Tolmie gives us his impression of how it
sounds.

Further:

nuXalk "A location --- the Bella Coola valley"
nuXalk-mx "a Bella Coola [sc. person]"
	from the Glossary in Davis & Saunders, Bella Coola Texts

or in another orthography

Nuxalk  "Bella Coola"
Nuxalkmc "Bella Coola native(s)"
	from H.F.Nater, Concise Nuxalk-English Dictionary

And of course Tolmie was a Scot so <wh> means what it says, and <ch> is
quite appropriate for /x/.

Ross Clark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan H. Hartley [mailto:ahartley at D.UMN.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, 10 June 2002 6:42 a.m.
> To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> Subject: Nuxalk
>
>
> Can anyone tell me the pronunciation, in English, of Nuxalk?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alan
>