Dave Florence has launched a project "Human-made Sounds of
the Powell River Forest"
Note: text uses the word
"Tla'Amin", which is a phonetic
version of the word "Sliammon" using the English keyboard characters. Later,
the more accurate International Phonetic Alphabet phonetic system will be
introduced.
INTRODUCTION
What human-made sounds have been heard in the Powell River Forest?
After the last ice age, the Tla'Amin people arrived in our area and for thousands
of years their language, music and work-related sounds were the only
human-made sounds. With first European contact in the late eighteenth
century, Spanish and English language sounds were introduced, along with
sounds from tools brought from Europe. As European and Asian immigrant
settlement accelerated in the late 19th Century, many new languages, music
and tools were heard as the forests were harvested.
The aim of this project is to research and present on this website and in
the Forestry Museum the human-made sounds that have been heard in our
local forest. Some themes:
Human Language The dominant human language
in the Powell River Forest is now of course English. The language in use the
longest is the Tla'Amin language. For short periods, other Euro-Asian
languages were heard: Chinese, Japanese, Swedish etc.
Tla'Amin Language The Forestry Museum area of interest (drainage
areas of Powell
Lake, Lois Lake, Theodosia River, Toba River), is much the same as the
traditional territories of the Sliammon and Klahoose nations. This
project will present translations of common terms used in our
forest. Since the Tla'Amin language is a spoken, not written language, use
of phonetic spelling is necessary. Unfortunately, the English 26-letter alphabet
phonetics are not adequate.
Phonetic Language The Tla'Amin and other Salishan
languages are so complex it is necessary to introduce the complex
International Phonetic Alphabet and related
Americanist phonetic notation. We hope to present in the Forestry
Museum and on this website a primer table showing the phonetic characters
used in our terms, and an Audio recording of the terms.
Other Euro-Asian Languages We will include a small section
with translations of a few terms into Chinese and other languages heard
for a short period in our forests.
Lexicon of logging and other forest terms We will include
definitions of terms of interest to our forest, with translations to other
languages of interest.
Music
Tla'Amin Music Some examples of Tla'Amin music, perhaps
related to the forest, will be provided
Firstvoices.com clickable audio of words in the
Tla'Amin language
Detailed Instructions:
-
the site is slow – must be patient
-- create a login/password. (essential first step)
- click “ Learn our Language” button
-
Alphabet appears.
-
Computer must have Windows Media Player or equivalent installed, and have
settings such that it will play.
-
click the picture of the speaker on the first letter ( a ) . Windows
media player should pop up with a 3- second .mp3 file – voice says ah, then
“awss” (excuse my English phonetics) for Seal
-
then click “list by category” on the left
-
pick a word (click) – then when that word appears, click the > button on the
“Audio” panel on the upper right side – the word is sounded
