- Nitinaht language
Nitinaht (also Nitinat, Ditidaht, Southern Nootkan) is a South Wakashan (Nootkan) language spoken on the southern part of
Vancouver Island . Nitinaht is related to the other SouthWakashan languages , Makah and the neighboring Nuu-chah-nulth.The number of Nitinaht speakers dwindled from about thirty in the 1990sMithun, Marianne. (1999). "The languages of Native North America". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN (hbk); ISBN-X.] to just eight by 2006.Kwong, Matthew. (
2006-07-22 ). " [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060722.BCLANGUAGE/TPStory/TPNational/?page=rss&id=GAM.20060722.BCLANGUAGE Standing by their words] ".The Globe and Mail .] In 2003 the Ditidaht council approved construction of a $4.2 million Ditidaht Community School to teach students their language and culture from kindergarten to Grade 12 on the Ditidaht (Malachan ) reserve. The program was successful in its first years and produced its first high-school graduate in 2005.As of July 2006, British linguistics professor
Michael Fortescue has been living on the reserve, helping to complete a 500-page Ditidaht and Wakashan dictionary. The language only existed orally prior to 2002, but now has a 53-characteralphabet and new terminology is being developed to adapt the language to modern technology. The Ditidaht have begun publishing the language to CD, DVD, and onFirstVoices.ca .ee also
*
Ditidaht First Nation Notes
External links
* [http://firstvoices.ca/scripts/WebObjects.exe/FirstVoices.woa/1/wa/enterLanguageArchive?archive=f1b84b0c367f9f6e&wosid=6udBZDcYfbbaXx5qGUdXBM Ditidaht Language on FirstVoices.ca]
[Category:Languages of Canada]
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