1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 2 of 3)
Remains of the Clallam, June 1904 (image credit: Wikipedia)
It gets worse…
Here, “women and children first” takes on a terrible new meaning.
…kata yutl alki klaska tlap pus klaska kro kopa
…qʰáta yútłił áłqi łáska t’łáp [1] pus łáska q’úʔ kʰupa
…how glad later they catch when they arrive at
‘…how glad they were going to wind up being when they arrived at’Viktoria; pi ST hloima iaka tomtom.
viktória; pi sáx̣ali-táyí x̣lúyma yaka tə́mtəm. [2]
Victoria; but above-chief different his idea.
‘Victoria; but God had a different plan.’Iht tanas windo chako kakshit kopa wind
íxt ténas wíndo cháko-kákshət kʰupa wínd
one little window become-broken by wind
‘One small window got broken by the wind’pi kopa chok: klaska ayu trai pus mamuk tlus
pi kʰupa chə́qw: łáska (h)ayu-tráy [3] pus mamuk-(t)łús(h)
and by water: they much-try in.order.to make-good
‘and by the water: they tried and tried to repair’ukuk windo, pi wik kata: drit ayu chok
úkuk wíndo, pi wík-qʰáta: dlét (h)áyú chə́qw
that window, but not-how: really much water
‘that window, but couldn’t: quite a lot of water’chako kopa ukuk tanas windo: wik lili pi
cháko kʰupa úkuk ténas wíndo: wík líli pi
come in that little windo: not long.time and
‘came through that small window: soon,’stimbot chako patl chok kopa kikuli, klaska paia
stím-bót chako-pʰáł chə́qw kʰupa kíkwəli, łaska páya
steam-boat become-full water in bottom, their fire
‘the steamboat was filled with water belowdecks, their fire’chako mimlus pi stimbot iaka stop, wik kata
chako-míməlus pi stím-bót yaka stóp, wík-qʰáta
become-dead and steam-boat it stop, not-how
‘went out and the steamboat stopped, it couldn’t’wiht iaka kuli kah iaka tiki, pi wind drit
wə́x̣t yáka kúli qʰá(x̣) yáka tíki, pi wínd dlét
more it travel where it want, and wind really
‘any longer travel where it wanted, and the wind quite’skukum lolo iaka kah kah kopa chok.
skúkum lólo yáka qʰá(x)-qʰa(x̣) [4] kʰupa chə́qw.
strongly carry it where-where on water.
‘powerfully took it here and there on the sea.’Mitlait < 15 > kluchmin pi tanas kopa ukuk
míłayt fíftin łúchmən pi ténas kʰupa úkuk
be.present fifteen woman and child on that
‘There were 15 women and children on that’stimbot. Kaptin wawa: = Aias tlus nsaika
stím-bót. káptə́n wáwa: = (h)ayas-(t)łús(h) nsáyka
steam-boat. captain say: = very-good we
‘steamboat. The captain said: = We’d better’ilip tlus nanich ukuk kluchmin pi tanas,
íləp (t)łús(h)-nánich úkuk łúchmən pi ténas,
first good-watch these woman and child,
‘take care of these women and children first,’pus wik klaska mimlus kopa chok. < X > Pi klaska mash
pus wík łáska míməlus kʰupa chə́qw. pi łáska másh
so.that not they die in water. and they put
‘so they don’t drown. And they put’klaska kopa tlun tanas bot, kanamokst skukum
łáska kʰupa łún ténas bót, kʰanumákwst skúkum
them in three little boat, with strong
‘them into three small boats, with strong’tilikom pus mamuk isik, pus lolo klaska…
tílikam pus mamuk-ísik, pus lólo łáska…
people in.order.to make-paddle, in.order.to carry them…
‘men to row, to take them…’
Comments:
qʰáta yútłił áłqi łáska t’łáp [1] is a fine example of a grammatical feature that’s very typical of BC Chinook Jargon. The word t’łáp (literally ‘catch; find’) in BC also gets used to indicate a verbal result that’s out of the subject’s control. So here I translate the phrase as ‘how glad they were going to wind up being’.
pi sáx̣ali-táyí x̣lúyma yaka tə́mtəm [2] — here you have once again the fluent Chinuk Wawa speaker’s best friend for packing an emotional punch with the words: emphasizing and contrasting things by moving them to the start of the phrase. Literally these Jargon words mean ‘but God, different was his idea.’
łáska (h)ayu-tráy [3] pus mamuk-(t)łús(h): another nifty BC Jargon feature is that there’s a crystal-clear way to say ‘try’ in this dialect! It’s virtually always followed by pus, the subjunctive marker, because of course whatever you’re trying to do hasn’t yet happened in reality.
qʰá(x)-qʰa(x̣) [4] is found a lot in BC Jargon, where it’s one of the incredibly few reduplications. Contrast that with Grand Ronde / the lower Columbia River early-creolized dialect, which has a great deal of reduplicating of words, a feature that expresses ‘action all over the place’. (Notably, this GR Jargon reduplicative inflection applies equally well to either verbs or *adverbs* including qʰá(x), paralleling other lower Columbia languages such as Salish, which can inflect adverbs with at least some of the morphology that’s otherwise unique to verbs.) This qʰá(x)-qʰa(x̣) isn’t in the Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary. But it was documented before that, in Father St. Onge’s handwritten 1892 dictionary, and it’s even known in a 1907 letter in Seattle. Because we know that GR Jargon reduplication stresses the first “copy” of the word, I’ve reconstructed the pronunciation that way: qʰá(x)-qʰa(x̣).
— from Kamloops Wawa #208 (March 1904), pages 12-13
