Musqueam Reference Grammar

Publisher: UBC Press
Publication date: 2004
Pages: 628Here is the long-awaited grammar of the Musqueam dialect of Halkomelem, which Wayne Suttles began work on in the late 1950s. The Musqueam people's aboriginal territory includes much of the Fraser Delta and the city of Vancouver. Halkomelem is one of the twenty-three languages that belong to the Salish Family.
Suttles, an anthropologist, worked with knowledgeable older people, eliciting traditional stories, personal narratives, and ethnographic accounts. The grammar covers the usual topics of phonology, morphology, and syntax, illustrated by numerous sentences selected for their cultural relevance, providing insight into traditional practices, social relations, and sense of humor. With information on kinship, space and time, names of people and places, and the history of work on Halkomelem, this is perhaps the fullest account of any Salish language.