Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim-Xwelíten Sníchim Sḵexwts / Squamish-English Dictionary (review)

Sníchim, or the Squamish language, is one of the twenty-three Salishan languages that are spoken, or (in some cases) were formerly spoken, in the Northwest Coast and Plateau of North America. (I refer to the language as Squamish for the sake of brevity.) Like other languages of this area, Squamish is currently spoken as a first language only by a very limited number of speakers. Hence, this dictionary is a long-awaited, much-needed tool for two communities: first, the community, to whom it will be important in their effort to revitalize their ancestral language, and second, the community of linguists and anthropologists.

Squamish was already one of the best described Salishan languages, with a detailed grammar by Aert Kuipers (1967, along with a supplement in 1969). Having a foundation like that provided by Kuipers and the linguists who were involved in making this dictionary, and noting the large number of Squamish people involved (pp. xi-xiii), one can feel confident about the quality of the content of this volume. Aside from the dictionary sections in Kuipers's grammar (Kuipers 1967:243-400, 1969:41-96, see also 1989:242-48), this is the first dictionary of Squamish. The target audiences of these works are quite different: the dictionary in Kuipers's works is intended for linguists and so is very difficult for nonspecialists to use for practical purposes. The dictionary under review is targeted at language learners, primarily for the people of the Squamish Nation, as stated in the foreword (p. ix).

The phonetics and phonology of Squamish, like its sister Salishan languages, is well known for its complexity; morphosyntactically, it belongs to the so-called polysynthetic type, and is likewise complex. These features are challenging for anyone undertaking the task of documentation and description, regardless of the target audience. As with grammar writing, dictionary making is a balancing act, especially if the dictionary is to be published. The more detail and information one includes in a volume, the more difficult it becomes for users, especially learners, to retrieve and understand the content. Providing less information, on the other hand, would conceal important facts about the language that learners or linguists need. In order to accommodate the needs of the learners of the language, the editors had to make some crucial choices, and, overall, they have in my opinion done a fine job.

The name of the author, as it appears on the cover, is "Squamish Nation Dictionary Project." The actual people involved are listed in the "Squamish Dictionary Project Personnel" (pp. v-vi); the total number of people listed is thirty-three, including Peter Jacobs as editor-in-chief, many Squamish people, and some linguists. One can immediately sense that this dictionary is a result of collaborative work.

After the list of personnel and the table of contents (p. vii), there is an introductory part that contains the following sections: "Foreword" (with a map, pp. ix-x), "Background" (pp. xi-xiii), "The Squamish Language" (pp. xiv-xv), and "How to Use This Dictionary" (pp. xvi-xix). The last section contains the subsections "The Writing System," "The Order of the Alphabet," and "Other Notes."

The writing system used in this dictionary is the one officially adopted by the Squamish Nation; it is based on the system developed by Randy Bouchard (BC Language Project) in the 1970s for indigenous languages in this area. It uses the letters of the Roman alphabet, with underlining as the only modification. The order used follows that of English (I add IPA equivalents, where these are different, in square brackets): a, aa, ch[ʧ], ch', [ʧ'], e[ə], h, i, ii, k, k', kw[k ^w], kw' [k' ^w], ḵ[q], ḵ', [q'], ḵw [q ^w], ḵw'[q' ^w], l, l', lh[ɬ], m, m', n, n', p, p', s, sh[∫], t, t', tl' , ts, ts', u, uu, w, w...