Tsudoi Wada

PhD, Linguistics, Tsek’ene

About

My name is Tsudoi Wada. I am a third-year graduate student in the General Linguistics program here at the University of Washington. My main areas of interest are semantics and endangered languages. I am currently engaged in fieldwork documenting Tsek’ene (or Sekani) language, a First Nations language spoken in British Columbia. Many of the First Nations languages of Canada are endangered and revitalization efforts greatly vary in funding, participation and long-term interest. My hope is not just to preserve the language with the help of the last remaining speakers, but also to contribute to efforts to revitalize the language in the community. I furthermore aim to study how language preservation and revitalization efforts more broadly may be improved. Studying Tsek’ene will also contribute to my course of study in the linguistics program and eventually my dissertation. Having spent the past several years learning this language, it has proven to be very challenging and interesting to learn. I look forward to furthering my studies of both the language and Canada in the coming year.