VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 Trutch Street has been renamed SuB次元官网网址檌t (say-EET), B次元官网网址渢ruthB次元官网网址� street. Born in Victoria. Raised in Esquimalt. I never questioned how to pronounce the anglicized spellings of Sooke, Songhees, Comox and Cowichan or even Esquimalt. Although it is with some embarrassment I acknowledge that only recently I found out that Esquimalt means B次元官网网址減lace of gradually shoaling waters.B次元官网网址�

Three things have prompted this letter. First, a tourist asked me how to pronounce sxwenB次元官网网址檟wen tanB次元官网网址檈xw (some characters changed due to newspaper formatting), over the doors of the James Bay library. I didnB次元官网网址檛 know, nor did I know what it meant. Second, I made what I thought would be my last visit to the First Nations gallery at the Royal BC Museum. I then realized that we colonizers had forced our orthography on the spoken languages of the peoples who have lived here for thousands of years. Finally, I read an article on the renaming of Trutch Street.

My plea to all Island publishers and sign makers is to please provide a pronunciation guide and a meaning whenever words from the languages of our many First Nations are used. Not only will it help to preserve the languages and history, it will educate those of us who are guests on their ancestral lands. A Victoria B次元官网网址 article or a tourist information brochure on how the orthography of the B次元官网网址渟trangeB次元官网网址� spellings came about, might also be of interest. What does a 7 or a ? in the middle of a word, or an upside down e or superscript w mean?

By the way, according to the City of Victoria website, sxwenB次元官网网址檟wen tanB次元官网网址檈xw means B次元官网网址減eople who talk through their noseB次元官网网址� and is pronounced s-hweng hw-ung tongue-oo-hw. I canB次元官网网址檛 quite get my tongue around that.

Stephen Sullivan

Victoria