tsmeth’ó:les

blue eyes

Tsmeth’ó:les is the Halq’eméylem word for ‘blue eye(s)’. You can also use it for ‘to have blue eyes’.

Pronunciation

Tsmeth’ó:les sounds like tsum-its-ALL-us, except that:

• Instead of tsum, try to simply say just tsm, with no vowel before the m
• Theres is a catch in the throat (glottal stop) after the th (th’).
• There are two ways to pronounce the letters th’: (1) t+s+glottal stop, or (2) t+th+glottal stop. Some elders say it like (1), others like (2).  Both pronunciations are ‘correct’.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling, Elizabeth Phillips

Plural form form

You can use tsmeth’ó:les for a single eye, or for two eyes.  If for some reason you want to talk about large numbers of blue eyes there is also a special plural form you can use, like this ts’meth’meth’ó:les (audio here).

Elders make this type of plural by partly doubling (‘reduplicating’) the first part of the word.

Related words

The root word for tsmeth’ó:les is tsméth’ – blue.

blue

The -o:les ending means ‘of/on the eyes’, and this ending appears in many other words, for example:

• P’eq’ó:les – white eyes, cataract (p’eq’ means ‘white‘)
  

  cataract, have a cataract

• Sqe’ó:les – tear (literally ‘water of the eye’))
• Skw’echó:steló:les – eyeglasses (literally ‘windows of the eyes’ suffix)
• St’elmexwó:les – eye medicine
• Kw’qwó:les – get hit in the eye