1.7: Vocabulary - Peoples, Places, and Languages

Adding the lexical suffix -qun, meaning "throat", to the name of a group of people expresses the idea of speaking the language of those people. With some words, a prefix is added as well: hw- or sh-. Learn the following words.


hwulmuhw First Nations person   hwulmuhwqun speak a First Nations language
Quw'utsun Cowichan   hwquw'utsun'qun speak the Cowichan language
Shts'um'inus* Chemainus   hwshts'um'inusqun* speak the Chemainus language
Snuneymuhw* Nanaimo   shnuneymuhwqun* speak the Nanaimo language
Snuw'nuw'us Nanoose   shnuw'nuw'usqun* speak the Nanoose language
Sqwxwa'mush Squamish   shqwxwa'mushqun* speak the Squamish language
Shi'she'lh Sechelt   hwshi'she'lhqun speak the Sechelt language
Hwmuthkwi'um Musqueam   hwmuthkwi'umqun speak the Musqueam language
chuymun Chinese person   hwchuymunqun speak Chinese
hwunitum' white person   hwunitum'qun speak English

*Note:   The words marked with an asterisk above can also be pronounced Shts'uminus, Snunuymuhw, hwshts'uminusqun, snunuymuhwqun, snuw'nuw'usqun, and hwsqwxwa'mushqun, respectively. However, we will spell them as above in these lessons. Note that the speaker's pronunciation of Shts'uminus is close to "Shch'uminus" as the [ts'] sound assimilates to the preceding [sh] sound.