American linguist develops braille alphabet for traditional dialect of the Ts’msyen people

CBC News, British Columbia, July 18, 2021
The Sm’algyax braille alphabet created by Harris Mowbray is now available to the public online as a series of illustrations that correspond to characters conventionally used to write Sm’algyax, the traditional language of the Ts’msyen people in northern B.C. Harris Mowbray has never been to Prince Rupert, B.C., but he has left his touch there. Mowbray, an amateur linguist and software programmer based in California, in collaboration with Prince Rupert resident and Gitga’at Nation member Brendan Eshom, has created a braille alphabet for Sm’algyax, the traditional dialect of the Ts’msyen people of the north coast. According to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, which works to preserve B.C. Indigenous languages, Sm’algyax is in serious decline and most speakers are over 70 years old.