Kanaka Bar one community that makes up the Nlaka'pamux Nation and the language that is spoken here is Nlakapamchin. Our language has been described by others as an Interior Salish dialect and has many similarities with the Statlimx and Shuswap people's language. It is an oral language only and there was no writing style that pre-dated contact although there exists today at least 17 different ways to "spell" our language and Kanaka has chosen to use no writing style and prefer to use verbal and images to teach. Some words are used throughout our webpage though and we thank the persons who created these intial spellings.
Kanaka Bar has no formal language program and starting in July of 2018, created this section to showcase the words and phrases of our people. Please click on the drop-down menus to the right to see an hear our language being spoken. Our goal is to have 80 words and 40 phrases by the end of August 2018.
Vocabulary
The Nlakapamux language is very extensive, like many languages; We have words for numbers, animals, plants, and so much more. To learn how to count in Nlakapamchin or to simply listen to some of our vocabulary words:
Counting
Animals
Phrases