# Saanich dialect

Saanich (also Sənčáθən, written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography, pronounced) is the language of the First Nations Saanich people in the Pacific Northwest region of northwestern North America. Saanich is a Coast Salishan language in the Northern Straits dialect continuum, the varieties of which are closely related to the Klallam language.

## Language revitalization efforts

"The W̱SÁNEĆ School Board, together with the FirstVoices program for revitalizing Aboriginal languages, is working to teach a new generation to speak SENĆOŦEN" at the ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ Tribal School. The first Grade 12 class is scheduled to graduate in June of 2026.

### SENĆOŦEN texting, mobile app and portal

A Saanich texting app was released in 2012. A SENĆOŦEN iPhone app was released in October 2011. An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at the First Voices SENĆOŦEN Community Portal.

## Phonology
### Vowels

Saanich has no rounded vowels in native vocabulary. As in many languages, vowels are strongly affected by post-velar consonants.
| Type | Front | Central | Back |
| High | i | | u |
| Mid | e | ə | |
| Low | | | ɑ |
* ↑ /i/ is [ɪ] adjacent to a post-velar or labio-postvelar consonant, or preceding /ʔ/.
* ↑ The rounded close high back vowel /u/ is found only in loanwords, such as CEPU (/kəˈpu/) "coat", from French.
* ↑ /e/ is [e̽]—rarely as low as [ɛ]—adjacent to a post-velar or labio-postvelar consonant or preceding /ʔ/. It is closer—almost [i]—next to a lateral, post-alveolar, or /w/.
* ↑ /ə/ is generally mid central, but becomes [ɑ̽] adjacent to a postvelar or labio-postvelar, or a laryngeal obstruent, and especially between two such consonants, whether or not it is stressed. When unstressed, it is a close central [ɨ] following post-alveolars and before sonorants (including /ŋ/), and it is central rounded [ʉ] before the labialized obstruents.
* ↑ /ɑ/ is [ɐ] before /j/. It is also affected by post-velars and /ʔ/.

### Consonants

The following table includes all the sounds found in the North Straits dialects. No one dialect includes them all. Plosives are not aspirated, but are not voiced either. Ejectives have weak glottalization.
| Type | Type | Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Alveolar | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Pre-velar | Pre-velar | Post-velar | Post-velar | Glottal |
| Type | Type | Bilabial | Dental | plain | sibilant | lateral | Post- alveolar | plain | rounded | plain | rounded | Glottal |
| Stop | plain | p | | t | ts | | tʃ | k̟ | k̟ʷ | k̠ | k̠ʷ | ʔ |
| Stop | glottalized | pʼ | t̪s̪ʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | | k̟ʷʼ | k̠ʼ | k̠ʷʼ | ʔ |
| Fricative | Fricative | | s̪ | | s | ɬ | ʃ | | x̟ʷ | x̠ | x̠ʷ | h |
| Sonorant | plain | m | | n | | l | j | | w | ŋ̠ | | |
| Sonorant | glottalized | mˀ | | nˀ | | lˀ | jˀ | | wˀ | ŋ̠ˀ | | |
* 1 2 Does not occur in the Saanich dialect, but can occur phonemically in some of the other neighboring dialects of Northern Straits Salish, like Lummi, Sooke and Songish.
* ↑ The unrounded prevelar stop /k̟/ is found only in loanwords, as in CEPU (/k̟əˈpu/) above.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 The phonemic status of the glottalized sonorants /mˀ nˀ ŋ̠ˀ lˀ jˀ wˀ/ is not agreed upon. Some linguists analyse them as unit phonemes, others as sequences of a plain sonorant and a glottal stop /ʔ/. They do not occur in word-initial position. They tend to [ʔC] following a stressed vowel, [Cʔ] preceding a stressed vowel, and creaky voiced sonorants elsewhere.
The dentals are often written ⟨θ⟩, ⟨tθʼ⟩, but this is inaccurate, as they are laminal sibilants, [s̻, ts̻], and are only rarely interdental. The alveolars /s, ts, tsʼ/, on the other hand, are apical, as are all alveolars, including the laterals. The post-velars are often written ⟨q⟩, ⟨χ⟩, etc., but are not actually uvular.

### Stress

Saanich stress is phonemic. Each full word has one stressed syllable, either in the root or in a suffix, the position of which is lexically determined. "Secondary stress" is sometimes described, but this is merely a way of distinguishing lexical schwas (with "secondary stress", like all other vowels in a word) from epenthetic schwas ("unstressed").

## Writing system

The Saanich orthography was created by Dave Elliott in 1978, by using a typewriter to combine Latin characters with other marks to create new characters. It is a unicase alphabet, using only uppercase letters with the single exception of a lower-case s for the third person possessive suffix.
| A | Á | Ⱥ | B | C | Ć | Ȼ | D | E | H |
| /e/ | /e/ | /ej/ | /pʼ/ | /k̟/ | /tʃ/ | /k̟ʷ/ | /tʼ/ | /ə/ | /h/ |
| I | Í | J | K | ₭ | Ḵ | Ḱ | L | Ƚ | M |
| /i/ | /əj/, /ɑj/ | /tʃʼ/ | /k̠ʼ/ | /k̠ʷʼ/ | /k̠/ | /k̠ʷ/ | /l/, /lˀ/ | /ɬ/ | /m/, /mˀ/ |
| N | Ṉ | O | P | Q | S | Ś | T | Ⱦ | Ṯ |
| /n/, /nˀ/ | /ŋ̠/, /ŋ̠ˀ/ | /ɑ/ | /p/ | /k̟ʷʼ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /t/ | /t̪s̪ʼ/ | /tɬʼ/ |
| Ŧ | U | W | W̱ | X | X̱ | Y | Z | s |
| /s̪/ | /əw/, /u/ | /w/ | /x̟ʷ/ | /x̠/ | /x̠ʷ/ | /j/, /jˀ/ | /ts/ | /-s/ |
The glottal stop /ʔ/ is not always indicated, but may be written with a spacing cedilla: ¸, or less formally with a comma: ,. When distinguished, the glottalized resonants are ⟨L¸ M¸ N¸ Ṉ¸ U¸ Y¸⟩.
The vowel /e/ is usually written Á, unless it occurs next to a post-velar consonant (/k̠ k̠ʷ k̠ʼ k̠ʷʼ x̠ x̠ʷ ŋ̠ ŋ̠ʷ/), where it is written A.

### Example text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
| Saanich: | EWENE SÁN E TŦE U, MEQ EȽTÁLṈEW̱ Ȼ SNI,S SQÍEŦ E TŦE XĆṈINS. U, XENENEȻEL TŦE U, MEQ EȽTÁLṈEW̱ E Ȼ SI,ÁM,TEṈS. ĆŚḰÁLEȻEN TŦE U, MEQ SÁN. Í, Ȼ S,Á,ITEṈS TŦE U, MEQ SÁN X̱EN,IṈ E TŦE SĆÁ,ĆE,S. |
| IPA: | /əwənə sen ə ts̪ə əwʔ mək̟ʷʼ əɬtelŋəx̟ʷ k̟ʷ sniʔs sk̟ʷʼɑjəs̪ ə ts̪ə x̠t͡ʃŋins. əwʔ x̠ənənək̟ʷəl ts̪ə əwʔ mək̟ʷʼ əɬtelŋəx̟ʷ k̟ʷ siʔemʔtəŋs. t͡ʃʃk̠ʷelək̟ʷen ts̪ə əwʔ mək̟ʷʼ sen. əjʔ k̟ʷ sʔeʔiteŋs ts̪ə əwʔ mek̟ʷʼ sen x̠ʷənʔiŋ ə ts̪ə st͡ʃeʔt͡ʃəʔs/ |
| English original: | "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." |

### Unicode

In 2004, four characters from the SENĆOŦEN orthography were added to the Unicode standard.

## Grammar
### Metathesis

In Saanich, metathesis is used as a grammatical device to indicate "actual" aspect. The actual aspect is most often translated into English as a be …-ing progressive. The actual aspect is derived from the "nonactual" verb form by a CV → VC metathesis process (i.e. consonant metathesizes with vowel).
| ŦX̲ÉT 'shove' (nonactual) | → | ŦÉX̲T 'shoving' (actual) |
| ṮPÉX̲ 'scatter' (nonactual) | → | ṮÉPX̲ 'scattering' (actual) |
| ȾȽÉQ 'pinch' (nonactual) | → | ȾÉȽQ 'pinching' (actual) |