Kwakʼwala
/ˈkʷakʷala/noun
The Indigenous Wakashan language traditionally spoken by the Kwakwakaʼwakw peoples of coastal British Columbia.
Did you know?Kwakʼwala uses an apostrophe to mark glottalization, a meaningful constriction of the voice that can distinguish one word from another.
Etymological Timeline
Prehistory
Proto-Wakashan
*kwakʷ-
“A proposed ancestral element associated with the Kwakʼwala-speaking branch; the deeper origin of the name is not securely established.”
18th–19th Century
Kwakʼwala
Kwakʼwala
“The language spoken by the Kwakwakaʼwakw peoples on the northern Pacific coast of British Columbia.”
19th Century
English records
Kwakwala / Kwakiutl
“European spellings used in missionary, colonial, and ethnographic sources; “Kwakiutl” was also applied broadly to the people and their language.”
20th Century
English
Kwakiutl language
“A common older English designation, increasingly rejected as an imprecise colonial label.”
Modern English
English
Kwakʼwala
“The preferred modern English spelling for the language, using the apostrophe to represent a glottalized consonant.”