The Royal BC Museum is honoured to have permission to integrate the language of the lək̓ʷəŋən (pronounced le-kwung-en) people into the signage that will be posted throughout the exterior landscape of the new facility.

“Songhees Nation’s priority is to honour our elders, speak our language, practice our traditions and birth rights to enrich our culture and language. Elder Elmer George is the eldest lək̓əŋiʔnəŋ speaker. We are so happy that we have language champions who have become very confident using lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ in public and community events. This demonstration of language reclamation shows that the strong spirit of the lək̓ʷəŋən people is still present and will continue to thrive.” Ivy Seward, Songhees Language Team

The language experts have developed a Lekwungen phonetic alphabet as a tool to learn the sounds of the language and support learning. For example – the ʔ symbol represents a hard “glottal stop” – the silence created when airflow is obstructed in the vocal tract. The ʷ symbol captures the breathy sound in the word Lekwungen or lək̓ʷəŋən – and is reminiscent of the sounds heard at the shoreline, as waves roll across the beach rocks.

In addition to converting the oral language into a written form, this living language continues to create new words for contemporary objects. For example, the language team explains that the lək̓ʷəŋən word for telephone gets its name from the echo tree. In the past, a type of tree fungus would grow very large and lək̓ʷəŋən ancestors would drum beside it so that the drum sound would echo across the way to invite people over for a feast. Because the modern telephone has similar attributes to how the tree fungus echoed sound, both items share the same name in lək̓ʷəŋən.

When the language team was asked to translate the word welcome into lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ for the entrance sign, another teachable moment emerged. Florence explained that the language group had to really think about this request because their language does not have a word specifically for welcome. Instead, the language team landed on əyʔ kʷəns téčəl meaning – its good you’ve arrived. For the welcome sign inside the lobby, the greeting will read: əné nuiləŋ, meaning come on in.

“It will be good to see our words on signs around PARC campus. It is also a sign that our Nations are in relationship with RBCM and the Province.” nəʔəmtənat (Florence Dick), Indigenous Liaison Officer for the project for Songhees Nation

The Songhees Language Group has generously created this video of members speaking their language: