May, salmonberry time
Tem’elíle is the Halq’eméylem word for ‘May’.
Literally it means ‘salmonberry time’.
Pronunciation
Tem’elíle sounds like tumm-ell-LEE-luh.
Audio: Elizabeth Herrling
Related words
Tem’elíle is based on alíle/elíle – salmonberry.
The tem- prefix means ‘time‘ or ‘time for’, and occurs in other words related to times and seasons, including:
- temkw’ókw’es – summertime (literally ‘hot time’)
- temqwá:l – moon of July (literally ‘mosquito time’)
- temqw’íles – springtime (literally ‘time when things sprout up’)
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