By Nora O\u2019Malley Local Journalism Initiative Reporter\u00a0 Like a giant cedar tree cut down, the passing of Ditidaht elder Michael Thompson (Kwiibaalaah) this summer left a mark on the Nuu-chah-nulth landscape, leaving the younger generation with less. Thompson was the lone fluent speaker of the diitiid\u0294aa\u0294tx\u0323 (Ditidaht) dialect. He was born in the village of Waaya, B.C. on September 13, 1932, and passed away on July 13, 2026, in Ditidaht\u2019s main village of Balaats\u2019adt on Nitinaht Lake. \u201cWith the last speaker going means that our children and grandchildren won\u2019t hear actual fluent speech,\u201d said Dr. Bernice Touchie. \u201cLanguage changes all the time, but there will be drastic changes without hearing the original, everyday language; the pronunciation, the accent, the body language, all of that was part of communicating at one… <\/p>\n
By Nora O\u2019Malley Local Journalism Initiative Reporter\u00a0 Like a giant cedar tree cut down, the passing of Ditidaht elder Michael Thompson (Kwiibaalaah) this summer left a mark on the Nuu-chah-nulth landscape, leaving the younger generation with less. Thompson was the lone fluent speaker of the diitiid\u0294aa\u0294tx\u0323 (Ditidaht) dialect. He was born in the village of Waaya, B.C. on September 13, 1932, and passed away on July 13, 2026, in Ditidaht\u2019s main village of Balaats\u2019adt on Nitinaht Lake. \u201cWith the last speaker going means that our children and grandchildren won\u2019t hear actual fluent speech,\u201d said Dr. Bernice Touchie. \u201cLanguage changes all the time, but there will be drastic changes without hearing the original, everyday language; the pronunciation, the accent, the body language, all of that was part of communicating at one... <\/p>\n