Kwakʼwala (), or Kwak̓wala, previously known as Kwakiutl (), is the Indigenous language spoken by the Kwakwakaʼwakw (which means "those who speak Kwakʼwala") in Western Canada. Kwakʼwala belongs to the Wakashan language family. There are fewer than 200 fluent Kwakʼwala speakers today, which amounts to 3% of the Kwakwakaʼwakw population. Because of the small number of speakers, most of whom are elders, as well as the fact that very few if any children learn Kwakʼwala as a first language, its long-term viability is in question. However, interest from many Kwakwakaʼwakw in preserving their language and a number of revitalization projects are countervailing pressures which may extend the viability of the language. Dialects The ethnonym Kwakwakaʼwakw means "speakers of Kwakʼwala", effectively defining an ethnic connection between different tribes by reference to a shared language. However, the Kwakʼwala spoken by each tribe exhibits dialectal differences, which may be quite significant in some cases. There are four major unambiguous dialects of Kwakʼwala: Kwak̓wala, ʼNak̓wala, G̱uc̓ala and T̓łat̓łasik̓wala. In addition to those dialects, there are also Kwakwakaʼwakw tribes that speak Liqʼwala. Liqʼwala has sometimes been considered to be a dialect of Kwakʼwala and sometimes a separate language. The standard orthography for Liqʼwala is quite different from the most widely used orthography for Kwakʼwala, which tends to widen the apparent differences between Liqʼwala and Kwakʼwala. Phonology Kwakʼwala phonology exhibits many traits of the Northwest Coast Sprachbund of which it is a part. They include a large phonemic inventory with a very rich array of consonantal contrasts and relatively few vowel phonemes, frequent use of a reduced vowel //, contrastively glottalized sonorant consonants, the existence of ejectives at all places of articulation, and the presence of lateral affricates. Consonants The consonantal inventory of Kwakʼwala includes a three-way contrast in plosives (voiceless, voiced, and ejective). There is an extensive series of distinctions between rounded and non-rounded consonants in the dorsal region. Notably, there are no velar consonants without secondary articulation: they are all either palatalized or labialized. The consonants are shown in the following table. Vowels The vowels of Kwakʼwala are /a e i o u ə/. There is a phonemic length distinction as well; however, not all vowels exist in both long and short versions. The phonemic status of some of the vowels in question is relatively unclear, as especially evident in the case of /a/ and /ə/. They often interchange in different instances of the