Saanich

Saanich is an anglicization of the name of the Saanich people or W̱SÁNEĆ. It may refer to:

Places

Electoral districts

Saanich dialect

Saanich (also Sənčaθən, written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography) is the language of the First Nations Saanich people. Saanich is a member of a dialect continuum called Northern Straits which is a Coast Salishan language. North Straits varieties are closely related to the Klallam language.

Language revitalization efforts

"The W̱SÁNEĆ School Board, together with the FirstVoices program for revitalizing Aboriginal languages, is working to teach a new generation to speak SENĆOŦEN" at the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School.

SENĆOŦEN texting, mobile app and portal

A Saanich texting app was released in 2012. A SENĆOŦEN iPhone app was released in October 2011. An online dictionary, phrasebook, and language learning portal is available at the First Voices SENĆOŦEN Community Portal.

Sounds

Vowels

Saanich has no rounded vowels in native vocabulary. As in many languages, vowels are strongly affected by post-velar consonants.

The rounded close high back vowel /u/ is found only in loanwords, such as CEPU (/kəˈpu/) "coat", from French.

Saanich (electoral district)

Saanich was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It made its first appearance in the election of 1903 and its last in the general election of 1963 after which it was combined with parts of the former Nanaimo and the Islands riding to form Saanich and the Islands. The same area is currently represented by Saanich North and the Islands and Saanich South.

For other current and historical electoral districts in the area of Victoria, British Columbia please see Victoria (electoral districts).

Electoral history

Note: Winners in each election are in bold.

The Saanich riding was combined with parts of Nanaimo and the Islands to form Saanich and the Islands for the 1966 election.

Sources

Elections BC historical returns