Frequently asked questions
If you want to ask something about our society or what we do, please check the following list to see if your question is answered here. If it isn’t, feel free to ask us through our contact page.
About our society
1. How can I contact you?
2. Who are your directors?
3. How can I join TTS?
4. What does your name mean?
5. How should I pronounce your name?
About our languages
6. What is the difference between Kwakwala and Kwakwakawakw?
7. Why is the Nuuchahnulth language called quuquuʔaca and ciiqciqasa?
8. What is a dialect?
9. Why do I need to worry about local dialects?
Answers
1. Q. How can I contact you? A. Please use our contact page. See the link above.
2. Q. Who are your directors? A. We are led by a board of five directors. Our directors during 2024-2025 are President takiistaʔaqsa June McCarthy, Vice President c̓uxʷc̓əʔadᶻəmǧa Gretchen Riel, Secretary-Treasurer məlidi Mercedes Webb, and Directors ƛaaʔaqsa Trinity Babichuk, and ƛiisƛiisaʔapt̓ Adam Werle.
3. Q. How can I join TTS? A. If you would like to join our society, please email us the following information. (1) Say that you want to join TTS, (2) name an existing member who vouches for you, and (3) say whether you identify as Nuuchahnulth, or Kwakwakawakw, or Indigenous, or some combination of these identities, or none of them. You can use our contact page for this. Once you are approved, you must pay dues of $20 CAD per year.
4. Q. What does your name mean? A. Nuuchahnulth and Kwakwala are related by common descent from the Proto-Wakashan language, which was spoken by our ancestors in time immemorial. Nuuchahnulth t̓ašii and Kwakwala t̓əxəla come from the same root, meaning ‘way, path, door’, that is, a means of getting from one place to another. Our name means that we are trying to follow a good path.
5. Q. How should I pronounce your name? A. Our name is written t̓ašii-t̓əxəla in the Nuuchahnulth and Liqwala alphabets, or [t’əʃiːt’əxʲəla] in the International Phonetic Alphabet. If you don’t know how to pronounce our languages, but want to say our name as accurately as possible using English sounds, you can say tuh/shèe tuh/kyuh/láh, with the main stress on the last syllable, and weaker stress on the second syllable, as in Retùrn of the Kíng.
6. Q. What is the difference between Kwakwala and Kwakwakawakw? A. In short, our language is Kwakwala (kʷak̓ʷala), and our people are the Kwakwakawakw (kʷakʷəkəw̓akʷ). In our language, we call our dialects liq̓ʷala, kʷak̓ʷala, n̓ak̓ʷala, ǧuc̓ala, and so on. Partly because of its central location, the name of the dialect of the Kwakiutl (kʷaguʔł) of Fort Rupert has come to to describe the entire language, that is Kwakwala, and the Kwakwala-speaking nations are called the Kwakwakawakw, meaning ‘those who speak Kwakwala’. Both words are stressed on the first syllable: kwáh/kwah/la, kwáh/kwuh/ki/wahkw.
7. Q. Why is the Nuuchahnulth language called quuquuʔaca and ciiqciqasa? A. There is no traditional name for the Nuuchahnulth language, because we did not see ourselves as one nation in traditional times. The name Nootka was put on us by outsiders, and was never our own name for ourselves. The name Nuuchahnulth (nuučaan̓uł), meaning ‘along the mountains’, was proposed in 1979 by our late elder Abel John. When we talk about our language in the language, we usually say quuquuʔaca ‘speaking Indigenous language’ or ciiqciqasa ‘speaking the real way’. Or we talk about local dialects, such as yuuyuułuʔiłʔatḥa, ʔiiʔiiḥatisʔatḥa, and so on.
8. Q. What is a dialect? A. Every region and village has its own way of speaking. These regional ways of speaking are called dialects. The longer people live in a place, the more their dialect changes in unique ways. There are more Indigenous dialects than English dialects in North America because Indigenous peoples have been here much longer.
9. Q. Why do I need to worry about local dialects? A. Whenever you live and work on Indigenous land, it is appropriate to respect the people of the land. One way to respect the people is to use their dialect, to whatever extent you can.