An ad (& a joke?) in BC Chinook Jargon, 1902
Short and sweet —
Read and learn!
< A.E. Howse >, Hawc [sic]
kopa Nikola.
< General Merchant,
Nicola Lake, B.C. >Tilikom, kanawi ikta msaika tiki, msaika
tílixam, kʰánawi-íkta msáyka tíki, msáyka
friend, all-thing you.folks want, you.folks
‘Friends, everything you want, you’ll’tlap kopa naika haws, pi naika kwanisim
t’łáp Ø kʰupa náyka háws, pi náyka kwánisəm
find it at my house, and I always
‘find it at my house [sic], and I’m always’tlus tomtom pus msaika chako nanich naika.
łúsh-tə́mtəm pus msáyka cháku nánich náyka.
good-heart if you.folks come see me.
‘happy if you come visit me.’
— Kamloops Wawa #201 (June 1902), page [125]
That Chinuk Pipa shorthand letter “C” in Howse’s name is meant to stand for a “Z” sound.
Is Albert Elgin Howse (1855-1938), or Kamloops Wawa editor J.M.R. Le Jeune, making a pun here — “find it at my house”? He was a hardworking but funloving guy; here’s his Nicola Lake Hockey Club team, also from 1902:
Howse and team (image credit: Merritt Herald)
Was that a locally current joke in Chinuk Wawa? Howse surely spoke it; he not only sold things to Native people and was Indian Agent for time, but also was in the Settler social circle that included Jargon speakers Susan Allison and Clive Phillipps-Wolley.
It would work better in the Jargon (where haws means any building) than in English.
And Le Jeune often let his sense of humor shine in his Chinook newspaper.