I was teaching my son about the names of our fingers in Kwak̓wala the other day. When I got to ‘nula (middle finger), I explained that men call their older brothers ‘nula and women call their older sisters ‘nula. My son said that his uncle is “sa̱lt̕a”. His uncle is my adopted 9-year old brother and sa̱lt̕a is your pinky finger. I like how kids pick up on concepts like this and how these concepts are embedded in our culture.
ḵuma ‘thumb’
t̕sa̱mala ‘pointer finger’
‘nula ‘middle finger’
k̓eda ‘ring finger’
sa̱lt̕a ‘little finger’
ḵ̕waḵ̕waxt̕sane’ ‘finger’
t̕sa̱mt̕sa̱m ‘finger or toe nail’
I haven’t updated this site in ages! Now I feel guilty….
I just got back from the dentist and my mouth is frozen so all I have in my mind is my teeth and mouth so there are the words of the day. Simple!
gigi ‘teeth’
sa̱ms ‘mouth’
Well, it’s a New Year and I’m heading over to my mom’s to t̕sa̱pa. I’m looking forward to starting the year off with some of our favourite and special foods.
t̕sa̱pa ‘dip food (mainly in eulachon grease)’
t̕sa̱patla̱n’s ‘we are going to dip food’
Here’s the “menu” for our meal:
t̕łi’na ‘eulachon grease’
ka̱’aba̱’wakw ‘baked fish’
k̓ulu’xw ‘smoked fish’
kwu’si ‘potatoes’
xwi’xwak̕wa̱na ‘canoes’ LOL (not what we traditionally called them)
ła̱ḵ̓a̱sta̱n ‘seaweed’
ła̱x̱łaḵ ‘salmon egg and seaweed soupy mixture’
a’a̱nt ‘herring eggs’
di ‘tea’
