Talk:Keyoh

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I'm not clear as to what sort of article this is intended to be. If it is a definition of a word, doesn't it belong in wiktionary rather than wikipedia? If it is about the institutions associated with the word keyoh, then it would just be a bit of an article on the traditional system of government.

The translation on the UNBC web site is potentially misleading in that it suggests that a keyoh consists of a group of people. Actually, a keyoh is a region to which a certain group of people have rights of usufruct and of which they are the stewards. For each keyoh there is a keyoh hoontun-un "keyoh holder" = "steward", who is the person responsible for it. This is the traditional meaning. The term is also used for "trapline" in the sense in which the word is used by white people, that is as an area in which a certain person is granted exclusive rights to trap by the provincial government. It is also used with the meaning of "village" or "settlement". It does not refer to the group of people living in a village or to the people who have usufruct rights and stewardship over an area. I wouldn't rely on the UNBC site for this kind of information as the site is not written by anyone with expertise in such matters.

The relationship to yoh "house" is unclear. The "house" word is probably a derivative of the postposition meaning "interior". This postposition doubles as the noun meaning "(interior of the) chest" in all dialects of Carrier. yoh also means "house" in some dialects. Other dialects retain the original word for house, which is koo. (Ironically, in the Lheidli dialect, which is the dialect of the area in which the UNBC campus is situated, yoh means "building" and koo persists as "house". UNBC got the name for the residence from a speaker of another dialect.) The etymology of keyoh may be "interior of (our) legs", that is, the area one routinely travels around, but that isn't certain. There is no reason to believe that keyoh has anything to do with "house" as opposed to the "interior" sense from which the word for house is derived. Bill (talk) 07:23, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I wasn't sure what to make of it either - but didn't place the {{Notability}} template out of deference to you, as I saw you cited and assumed it had some other expansion/development which would make the point of its existence clear; maybe something by one of your students perhaps but apparently not. I thought perhaps it was something like the clan-territories of the Gitxsan-Wet'su-wet'en (a subject that really could use an article). It appears to exist (as an article) mostly becaues it's the name of hte UNBC residence, i.e. it's a bit of a vanity piece maybe by someone who lived there. There is no Carrier-language wiktionary and it's not a word that's found its way into English....perhaps the concept could be covered in a Carrier culture article, if that ever comes into existence (see Skwxwu7mesh culture and I think Kwakwaka'wakw culture maybe....); such articles carry stuff ranging from territory to village systems to marriage etc etc. If it's alright with you I'll place the notability template, or if you think it warranted I could just place the "delete" template by reason of non-notability...that the source cited doesn't think the article has a reason to exist should be enough to warrant that all by itself....Skookum1 (talk) 14:22, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

No, I haven't had anything to do with this article and don't know who the people who have written it are. I would be fine with placing the "delete" template.Bill (talk) 03:31, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, you're the reigning real-world expert in Category:Dakelh so your authority in this matter will carry a formal delete process easily enough once the ruling admin sees that; Just to formalize it a bit I'll' run it by the delete board at WikiProject Canada, and place the Notability tag; a speedy delete might not get passed and then, strangely, it can get more complicated ;-) wikipedia can be like that . . . Anyway if there's ever a peer review or dispute on any article under your academic aegis or in your region, you might find yourself consulted as expert opinion; in this case it's marginal but there's various other Dakelh culture articles and also local town and park articles with indigenous content where your guidance and corrections woudl be most valuable. Thanks for replying...Skookum1 (talk) 04:22, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Weighing in, I don't think it deserves its own article. It could be merged in to an article if the content was appropriate enough, but currently it is basically a definition. DigitalC (talk) 22:07, 30 October 2008 (UTC)