Jargon “horse” in a Southern Cal. Native language?
Why would the Chinook Jargon word for “horse” turn up quite early in Southern California?
Horatio Hale’s 1846 “Ethnography” volume of the US Exploring Expedition, page 566, has “keutan” for horse in the Netela/Kij language of the San Juan Capistrano area, south of Los Angeles, CA.
“Horse” is the Spanish loan kaavaay in the very closely related and nearby Jamul Tiipaay (Kumeyaay) language.
Hale had an excellent ear and mind for language, so I’m uninclined to see his “keutan” is a mistake. My recollection of Bill Bright’s “Animals of Acculturation in California Native Languages” is that the CJ word turns up in only a couple of Northern CA languages.
What a mystery!
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The Columbia Plateau Indians traded with California Indians, and this may be where the CJ word for horse became inserted in their language. Their horses were one of their primary trade items.
The one early reference that I know off the top of my head is the trading expedition of 1844 where Elija Hedding, son of Cayuse Chief Peopeomoxmox went south to California with a band of about 50 Indians to trade horses for cattle. Spokane Garry was also part of that group. Elijah Hedding had previously been to California “as a young boy” on an expedition., so this earlier would have taken place in the 1830’s.
Check out Washington History Online for the Elija Hedding reference.
I believe an annual trading brigade from Vancouver went to California. The annual brigades north to Langley and New Caledonia went by boat whereas the Siskiyou/South Party brigade to California was by horse. French Camp east of San Fransisco is named after where they would stay. This started in the 1820s. I am not sure how far south they went but these trading missions would be a possible source. The brigades were often led by Michel Laframboise, the most respected interpreter, who had arrived with the Astor group. Given that he had been there since the first sustained European contact and was responsible for interpretation I have to believe he played a role in the development of Chinook Wawa. There is speculation by some serious linguists that kiutan comes ultimately from cavallo although I don’t know the process. Could it be that kiutan comes from Netela/Kij rather than the other way around?
Excellent information Sam. Thanks. Michel Lamframboise does sound like the most likely source.
“Kiutan” is pretty solidly Chinookan. Pretty, I say. On the old CHINOOK listserv, the respected Dell Hymes observed that the word may be built of some Sahaptian root (kiu) with a Chinookan pronoun (tan) meaning “thing”. (http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9904B&L=CHINOOK&P=R164&1=CHINOOK&9=A&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4)
That may sound like a tortuous explanation, but it might make sense that a Plateau tribe would have introduced horses to their Chinookan (Wishram-Wasco) neighbours.
There certainly is a wide variety of words for “horse” in NW languages, where the Spanish words didn’t seem to reach. Just in Salish languages I can think of at least 3 totally distinct words, some derived from old words for “dog”.
Related to this, the etymology of “Cayuse” is an interesting puzzle, with some saying it’s French “cailloux”, which convinces me so little that I propose a Salish source meaning “marked face”! Also interesting is the question whether “siskiyou” is truly Algonquian (Cree?) in origin. Could it more precisely have come via Canadian (Metis) French? Could it even be related to kiutan?