Nuu-chah-nulth
/nuːˈtʃɑːnuːl/adjective
Of or relating to any of a group of North American Indian peoples inhabiting the west coast of Vancouver Island, or their language; = Nootka, in some uses also including Nitinaht.
- There is some disagreement among ethnologists and linguists as to whether the designation includes the Nitinaht. ‘The Nootkans of Vancouver Island referred to themselves for years as West Coast, and officially adopted the name West Coast Allied Tribes in 1958. The expression Westcoast language was also used. In 1978 they coined the name Nuu-chah-nulth, and this name probably now predominates in linguistic writing. In Handbk. North American Indians VII, Northwest Coast (1990) we used Nootka since (1) it was the established scientific name and (2) Nuu-chah-nulth is not actually a synonym of Nootka, since Nuu-chah-nulth includes the Nitinaht as well. The linguists who use Nuu-chah-nulth for Nootka simply ignore this aspect of the problem, preferring to use the locally favored term even if it is less precise and in a vernacular orthography with hyphens as syllable dividers.’ (Dr I. Goddard)..
noun
1A member of the Nuu-chah-nulth.
- Increasingly preferred to Nootka..
2The Southern Wakashan language of the Nuu-chah-nulth.
Origin
1970s; earliest use found in Ha-Shilth-Sa. From Nootka Nuuchahnulth, lit. ‘all along the mountains’, referring to the mountains of Vancouver Island which are common to all the tribes.