T’óqw’tem

Saturday

T’óqw’tem is the Halq’eméylem word for ‘Saturday’. Elders also use T’óqw’tem for ‘weekend’.

Literally T’óqw’tem means ‘the string is broken’.

Pronunciation

T’óqw’tem sounds TOCK-tum, except that instead of a k you say the Halq’eméylem q sound, which you make further back in your mouth, at your uvula.

In this word the first t and the qw are also ‘popped’ (what linguists call ‘ejectives’), by combining them with a catch in the throat sound.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling, Elizabeth Phillips

Structure

Elders made T’óqw’tem based on t’eqw’ót – to break it (used with strings and ropes), in the following way:

The -em ending here is the ‘passive’ ending, which here gives the meaning ‘it got broken’.

Why does this mean ‘Saturday‘?  The use appears to derive from the fact that some people counted days using markings or knots on a string.