Lillooet language

Lillooet /ˈlɪloʊɛt/, also known as St’át’imcets (Lillooet: St’át’imcets [ˈst͡ɬʼæt͡ɬʼemxət͡ʃ]), is the Interior Salishan language of the St’át’imc, spoken in southern British Columbia, Canada, around the middle Fraser and Lillooet Rivers. The dialect of the Lower Lillooet people uses the name Ucwalmícwts, because St’át’imcets means "the language of the people of Sat’", i.e. the Upper Lillooet of the Fraser River.

Lillooet is an endangered language with as few as 200 native speakers practically all of whom are over 60 years of age (Gordon 2005).

Regional varieties

St'at'imcets has two main dialects:

Upper St'at'imcets is spoken around Fountain, Pavilion, Lillooet, and neighboring areas. Lower St'at'imcets is spoken around Mount Currie and neighboring areas. An additional subdialect called Skookumchuck is spoken within the Lower St'at'imcets dialect area, but there is no information available in van Eijk (1981, 1997) (which are the main references for this article). A common usage used by the bands of the Lower Lillooet River below Lillooet Lake is Ucwalmicwts.