yóyes thel málelh means ‘my late father was working’‘. Some speakers would say tel málelh.
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li te Wólich
Li te Wólich… means ‘at Wahleach…’.
thel málelh
Thel málelh means ‘my late father’. Some speakers would say tel málelh.
mál
Mál means ‘father’. You can also spell this word má:l (the colon indicates a slightly longer vowel, but the difference is not significant with this word).
yóyes
Yóyes means ‘working’. It is the ‘-ing‘ (‘progressive’) form of yó:ys – ‘to work’.
Wólich
Wolích is a place name. Several places now bear this name, but in her stories Elizabeth appears to be referring to a whistle stop along the railway tracks on Seabird Island.
swéltel
Swéltel is the general term for a ‘net’. You can use this for any kind of net (there are also other words for specific kinds of nets).
xepá:ltel
Xepá:ltel is the word for a ‘wood carving knife’.
Is t’wa eystexwes kw’es las lex̲éywa tl’o su lóy kw’es ew hamámts o te sth’óqwi
Is t’wa eystexwes kw’es las lex̲éywa tl’o su lóy kw’es ew hamámts o te sth’óqwi means ‘I guess he liked to go torchlighting, because he was just giving away the fish’.
lóy kw’es ew hamámts o te sth’óqwi
lóy kw’es ew hamámts o te sth’óqwi means ‘(he) was only just giving away the fish’. The ‘he’ is just understood from context.