Some Comments on the Phonology of Tahltan

1. Tahltan is an Athapaskan language spoken in several villages in northern British Columbia and the southern Yukon. One of these communities is Iskut, B.C., where I have studied this apparently moribund tongue.' Iskut Tahltan is identical to the native idiom in use at Telegraph Creek, B.C., but there may exist dialectal differences between IskutTelegraph Creek Tahltan and the language as spoken on other reserves.2 However, such possible diversity is of no immediate relevance to the contents of this article. Iskut Tahltan (henceforth labeled Tahltan) is a "IIc" language, meaning that Proto-Athapaskan *ts/tS/k/kw is continued in Tahltan as