The (Chinook) Marseillaise du whisky
#1 on the Kamloops country chart in the winter of 1897! 70 years before the Beatles retooled the French national anthem for pop use in “All You Need is Love“…
Don’t be fooled by the fancy title, “The Whiskey Marseillaise”. It’s catchy.
Told in eyewitness words:
<10> Fibrwari <1897>.
10th February 1897.Msaika na nanich ukuk chi shanti mitlait
Do you folks see that new song that’skopa ukuk pipa. “Kanawi msaika styuil tilikom.”?
in this paper, “All you praying people”?Aias skukum shanti ukuk shanti: klaksta tilikom
This song is a fantastic song: any peoplekolan ukuk shanti, klaska aias tiki iaka.
who hear this song love it.Nsaika mamuk ukuk shanti kopa Spahomin, pi
We [ = I, Father Le Jeune] created this song at Spahomin [Douglas Lake, BC], andNikola Oksim iaka kanamokst nsaika kopa Spahomin iaka
Nicola Auxime, who was with us at Spahomin,aiak chako komtaks ukuk shanti pi iaka hilp
learned this song right away and helpedtilikom kopa ukuk shanti. Kimta nsaika lolo ukuk
people with this song. Afterwards we brought thisshanti kopa Kol Watir, pi pus nsaika kilapai kopa
song to Coldwater, and when we got back toKamlups, ukuk shanti aiak kuli kopa Kamlups.
Kamloops, this song quickly made its way around Kamloops.Klunas alki ukuk shanti kuli kanawi kah ilihi.
I reckon this song will eventually get around the whole country.Msaika tlap ukuk shanti kanamokst iaka myusik
You’ll find this song with the music for itkopa ukuk pipa.
in this issue.
— page 39 of KW #150 (March 1897)
Pãdã set reyuniõ nu avõ ə la bon ide
Pendant cette réunion nous avons eu la bonne idée
During this [Indian] gathering we had the good idead fer ə̃ shã pur no sovaj syur l tõ
de faire un chant pour nos sauvages sur le ton
of making a song for our Indians on the tuned la Marseies. J [SIC] shã a fe fyurər:
de la Marseillaise. Ce chant a fait fureur:
of the “Marseillaise” [the French national anthem]. This song was a hit:ils s sõ me a laprãdr avek yun ardər ĩkrwaiabl,
ils se sont mets à l’apprendre avec une ardeur incroyable,
they set to learning it with an unbelievable gusto,e pyui il l shãte a* dyu tet* a ki mãke* mãke*.
et puis ils le chantent […UNCLEAR; SUGGESTIONS WELCOME…].
and then they were singing it [……].Avã lete proshĩ s shã ora fe l tur dyu
Avant l’été prochain ce chant aura fait le tour du
By this coming summer this song will have made the rounds ofpei. Le parol e le not d s shã s
pays. Les paroles et les notes de ce chant se
the country. The words and the notes to this songtruv a yun otr paj d s nyumero.
trouvent à une autre page de ce numéro.
are found on another page of this issue.
— page 38 of the same issue, and I’m guessing at a few of the words
<Marseillaise du whisky.>
Kanawi msaika styuil tilikom tlus alta msaika sku=
All you praying people, now you shouldkum fait: liiam iaka saliks misaika; iaka tiki mim=
do battle: the Devil is mad at you; he wants tolus misaika, iaka tiki paia msaika wik na mi=
kill you, he wants to burn you, haven’tsaika chako komtaks kata ukuk kaltash wiski ma=
you learned how that darn whiskeymuk drit klahawiam msaika, msaika kluchmin pi msaika ta=
makes you pitiful, your wives and yournas… gitop tilikom mamuk
kids… Wake up, people, makemsaika tomtom, skukum, skukum, tlus msaika
your minds strong, strong, you shouldfait ukuk kaltash wiski.
fight that darn whiskey.
Cheers!
Great post! A few comments and suggestions:
Pãdã set reyuniõ nu avõ ə la bon ide …
Pendant cette réunion nous avons eu la bonne idée …
During this [Indian] gathering we had the good idea …
(I am surprised to see a schwa for “eu” which here – as the participle of avoir – is pronounced “u”)
… J [SIC] shã a fe fyurər:
… Ce chant a fait fureur:
… This song was a HUGE hit:
ils s sõ me a laprãdr avek yun ardər ĩkrwaiabl, (ME should be MI)
ils se sont MIS à l’apprendre avec une ardeur incroyable,
they set to learning it with ** unbelievable gusto, (No need for AN in English)
e pyui il l shãte A TYU TET a ki mãke* mãke*.
et puis ils le chantAIent À TUE-TÊTE à qui …. ******
and then they were singing it AS LOUD AS THEY COULD …… …. …
(I don’t understand the words after ‘a ki’. I think the phrase means “à qui mieux mieux” ‘each trying to outdo the other’ – again I am not familiar with “à qui manqué manqué” (?) which could be a possible regionalism)
Avã lete proshĩ s shã ora fe l tur dyu
Avant l’été prochain ce chant aura fait le tour du
By this coming summer this song will have made the rounds of THE
pei. …
pays. …
country. …
(pei “pays” here is not ‘country’ but ‘region’ or even ‘village’ – here likely ‘region’)
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There is a reason behind that schwa for “eu”. Transcribing my way through the run of “Kamloops Wawa”, I have run into more and more languages written in the shorthand. First was Chinuk Wawa of course. Then English, which uses some of the same symbols in different ways, including a schwa symbol. Then French, which makes still more distinctions, including “eu”, which is shown with the same symbol as that English schwa. I’ll have a bit of editing to do on the material in each language before publication!
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D’accord!
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Fantastic! Your comments are enormously helpful with this. There is much, much more shorthand French to be puzzled out, and in the cases when I have poor images of the pages, it’s very hard work. What I need to do is teach you native and fluent francophones the sténographie Duployé!
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I think you are doing very well!
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We need to start holding the annual Chinuk-Wawa Luʔlu again.
I’ll teach “Chinuk pipa” shorthand to everyone.
And French/English shorthand to people who want to be able to read the other pages of Kamloops Wawa (and piles of archival documents).
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sing it!!! I’m trying, but not knowing the shorthand, I’m having trouble matching the words to the beats.
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It’s a trip to sing, for sure. I nominate Marie-Lucie or Yann Vincent for this job 🙂
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As a linguist and a native speaker of French I’m certainly game for learning the sténographie Duployé! Are any of the Shorthand French texts written by French-speaking Metis or Indigenous L2 speakers? If so there might be useful information to be found on the “French of the Mountains” whose existence you have already brought to the attention of the scholarly world…
However, having inherited my grandfather’s tone-deafness and utter, total lack of singing ability (he was kicked out of the Church choir at the age of twelve), I will leave the feat of singing the Marseillaise du Whisky to others.
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Hey Stephane, nice to hear from you! I’m not aware of shorthand French from Indigenous or Métis people of the Kamloops region — but I wouldn’t be surprised to eventually find some in the archives. We know from Father Le Jeune’s telling it that there were “halfbreed” francophone families there; surnames like Falardeau and Molyneux, maybe Pierriche too, are found in this connection. Le Jeune sometimes quotes a bit of the local, highly nonstandard, French. I recall “Pas peur va, madame” from none other than Chief Louis of Kamloops. I’ve often wondered whether this stuff can be connected with French of the Mountains, which we know of from slightly farther north and west in Dakelh and Wits’uwit’en territory.
I’d be happy to work with highly fluent francophones on the shorthand French materials. It’s probably much less difficult for you to learn than it was for anglophone me to switch from Chinuk Wawa to French shorthand. There is quite a lot of this material in various archives including, sort of oddly, one in Washington State. And I’m transcribing the entire run of Kamloops Wawa, where it’s becoming evident that Le Jeune told a good deal of useful ethnographic and historical information “en sténographie”. For example, a fine paper in which Bill Poser presented Le Jeune’s reminiscence “Comment la stenographie a ete introduite chez les sauvages” turns out to be a skeletal and truncated version of what he told elsewhere, so a sequel is in order. I’ll share links soon to Duployan French learning materials.
You should join the Chinook Jargon group on Facebook. It’s a rewarding community.
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