Another (lovely) Chinook Lord’s Prayer
We’ve seen a few versions of The Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father”) in Chinuk Wawa; today we’ll look at a 1909 one.
This particular translation shows up in print, in two essentially identical versions, in books published that year:
Frederick Long’s dictionary presents it on page 42.
J.K. Gill’s has it on page 84, with a number of stress marks and other diacritics added, which is how you see it in today’s artistic illustration.
(We’ll be seeing, in a separate article here, the earlier source of today’s translation, showing it should be credited to John Kaye Gill.)
Here is a nice-looking artistic rendition of today’s translation:
(Image credit: WorthPoint)
Nesika Papa klaxta mitlite kopa Sáhalee,
kloshe kopa nesika tumtum mika nem.
Nesika hiyu tikeh chahco mika illahee,
Mamook mika kloshe tumtum
kopa ókoke illahee káhkwa kúpa shálee [sic].
Potlatch kónaway sun nesi’ka muckamuck;
pee Mahlee konaway nesika mesahchee
klakwa [sic] nesika mamook kopa kláska
spose mámook mesahchee kopa nesika.
Wake lolo nesika kópa peshak,
pee marsh siáh kopa nesíka konaway mesáhchee.
Kloshe kahkwa.
Because I go into full detail about this translation in another post, I’ll leave it there.
