Lingít Word of the Week: Tawéi — Mountain sheep

This is Lingít Word of the Week. Each week, we feature a Lingít word voiced by master speakers. Lingít has been spoken throughout present-day Southeast Alaska and parts of Canada for over 10,000 years.

Gunalchéesh to X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and the University of Alaska Southeast for sharing the recorded audio for this series.

This week’s word is tawéi, or mountain sheep. Listen to the audio below to learn how to say tawéi.

The following transcript is meant to help illustrate the words and sentences. 

Kooshdáakʼu Bill Fawcett: tawéi. 

That means mountain sheep.

Here is a sentence:

Kooshdáakʼu Bill Fawcett: Ax̱ tuwáa sigóo tawéi.

I want a mountain sheep.

You can hear each installment of Lingít Word of the Week on the radio throughout the week. 

Editor’s note: While there are only mountain goats in Southeast Alaska, mountain sheep live in interior regions of Canada and Alaska. The word for mountain goat will be featured in a subsequent Word of the Week. 

Additional resources: 

Find biographies for the master speakers included in this lesson here.

Learn more about why we use Lingít instead of Tlingit here.