kw’í:tsel

grizzly bear

Kw’ítsel is the Halq’eméylem word for ‘grizzly bear’ …

Pronunciation

• Kw’í:tsel sounds like KWEET-sull, except that the ‘kw‘ is popped (‘glottalized’).
• To make the pop, you combine ‘kw‘ with the glottal stop sound (catch-in-the-throat)

Some elders pronounce the word as kw’í:chel. This is also correct.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling, Rosaleen George

Examples

Here are some examples of how you can use this word:

• Hikw te kw’í:tsel. – The grizzly is big.
• Xáxe ye kw’í:tsel. – Grizzly bears are sacred.
• Hálp’exes te kw’í:tsel te sth’ó:qwi. – The grizzly is eating the fish.

Notes

• As for many Halq’eméylem words, there is no special plural form for this word.  To talk about more than one grizzly bear, you can just say ye kw’í:tsel – the grizzlies.
• Another (unrelated) word for grizzly bear is like this: xéytl’áls.
• Grizzly bears also have a traditional proper name, too. For females the name is Yeqwílmetelòt. For males the name is Yeqwílmet or Syeqwílmet. Both these names come from the word yéqw, which means ‘to burn‘.