Why the Squamish language uses the number seven to represent a glottal stop

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The Squamish language, a Coast Salish tongue from British Columbia, features a unique orthography born from technological necessity. Because the glottal stop character was absent from early typewriters and fonts, the community adopted the number seven as its written symbol, a convention that persists even in the age of Unicode.

The Squamish language, known natively as Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim, is indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, specifically southwestern British Columbia. Historically an oral language, it began receiving formal academic attention in the 1880s through the work of German anthropologist Franz Boas. Over the following century, researchers like Charles Hill-Tout and Homer Barnett documented various aspects of the culture and vocabulary. However, it was not until the 1960s that Dutch linguist Aert H. Kuipers produced a comprehensive grammar, which was published in 1967.

The modern writing system, established in 1990 by Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy, utilizes a modified Latin script. A defining feature of this orthography is the use of the number 7 to denote the glottal stop. This choice was a pragmatic response to the limitations of historical printing technology and early digital fonts, which lacked the specific character glyph for the sound. This numerical substitution remains a standard element of the language's written form today, alongside stress marks that indicate louder, longer vowel realizations.

Linguistically, Squamish is closely related to the Sechelt, Halkomelem, and Nooksack languages. It features a Verb–Subject–Object sentence structure and relies heavily on processes like reduplication to express grammatical functions such as plurality, as the language lacks traditional inflectional devices. A common morphological feature is the nominalizer prefix /s-/, which transforms verb stems into nouns, such as turning the concept of being cold into the noun for cold.

In recent decades, the Squamish Nation has prioritized language revitalization. In 1990, the Chief and Council declared it the official language of their people to secure funding. Despite being described as critically endangered in 2010 with only 10 fluent speakers, efforts have expanded significantly. Programs at institutions like Capilano University and Simon Fraser University, alongside community-based initiatives like the 'Where Are Your Keys?' technique, have fostered hundreds of active learners, aiming to integrate the language into daily home life.

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