Let's Learn Nisga'a!

No, you are not looking at a road sign in Klingon. These places are actual towns in Northern BC inhabited by the people of the Nisga'a Nation. Nisga'a, the language that they speak, is spoken by about 700 people. Incedentally, there are approximately 3500 graduate students on full scholarship trying to figure out how to pronounce it. What Nisga'a lacks in vowels, it makes up in character. Indeed, one has to be careful interspersing Nisga'a place names in normal conversation. See the following examples:

TJ: "Mom, I need the car. Darlene and I are going to Gitwinksihlkw"
Mom: "Well, I suppose that's okay. I mean you've been going out for a year. Just make sure you use protection."

Chanelle: "Laxgalt'sap!!!"
Bobby-Joe: "Chanelle, what did I tell you about enacting Alien 3 at the dinner table ."

See what I mean?

In Nisga'a language and culture, places are not named after people (as is common in European culture) , but rather the events that happened there. For example, in Nisga'a, Vetter Mountain is called T'ooyaksim wil at-aayiskwsim awa'am, mi ii sim k'ax nii-wiltkwhl lax ts'eets'ikgum', which means "place where the lava came from many years ago and killed our people". Interesting. So, if you were so inclined you could rename many things. For example, instead of saying
"I am going to the Crapper" (Mr. Crapper is the person who invented the modern flush toilet), you could say "I am going to the room-where-shit-periodically-hits-white-porcelain-bowl." If nothing else, this unconventional approach to the identification of every day things could lead to interesting conversation. Think of how exciting it would be to be at the forefront of language!