Friday, May 01, 2009

It's been asked, "Just what language does Good Life and Oystercatcher use the same letters?"


In case you didn't guess, the answer is:

Upper Glix'wqni. It's a native dialect from coastal BC. After the very hard winters they faced and the supplies of dried dogfish and catfish became dangerously low, the annual black oystercatcher migration would pass through their area. Often, entire villages were faced with starvation but the almost miraculous timing of this migration brought food o'plenty to their tables.

The villagers would lure the oystercatchers into their kitchens by pulling on a string attached to a large oyster shell. Being predatory, the birds would attack these giant shells, thinking they were their preferred food, Crassostrea marioandretiicus and hang on like Croatian pitbulls, thus allowing the Glix'wqni to reel them in like a large walleye.

So thankful for this heaven-sent abundance, the Glix'wqni term for these birds and living the "good life" is "qktnig'kxka".

Sadly, there are no living speakers of the language, so verification can't be done.

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