[kl] = /q/?
Klåda mika? (image credit: Wikipedia)
Here, very briefly, is another reader crowdsourcing challenge.
Have any of you ever heard an old-time Chinook Jargon speaker who used a [kl] sound where we now write a /q/?
I ask because I recently met a Chehalis-area Chinuk Wawa rememberer who pronounced qʰáta ‘how’ as [kládə].
That surprised me.
But I can imagine it making sense:
The “back of the mouth” /q/ sound is kind of like an English-language /k/ + our typical Pacific NW English “back of the mouth” /l/.
