Kamloops Wawa humour (part 3: White people’s weird horses)
I expect Native folks had already heard these called “bicycles” in English…
…And that’s what they must have been called in Jargon, since all new concepts had English labels in 1890s BC Chinuk Wawa. The word baisikl is in fact used in the following article.
But here, Father Le Jeune (a known tech lover) describes this contraption as White people’s weird horses, for his Native audience’s entertainment!
Msaika nanich
‘You folks can see’
ukuk hloima
‘this strange’
kyutan. Pi klunas
‘horse. And maybe’
msaika nanich tkop tilikom kuli
‘you’ve seen White people traveling’
kopa ukuk aias
‘on these very’
hloima kyutan. Kopa Boston ilihi klaska
‘strange horses. In America they’
sil kopa tanki wam <600 000> kakwa kyutan,
‘sold in the last year 600,000 such horses,’
<120 000> kopa kluchmin pi <480 000>
‘120,000 for women and 480,000’
kopa man.
‘for men.’
Pi ukuk wam ilip ayu man pi ilip ayu
‘And this year more men and more’
kluchmin tiki iskom ukuk aias hloima kyutan
‘women want to get these bizarre horses.’
Klaska mamuk <1 250 000> kakwa kyutan
‘1,250,000 horses like this are being built’
kopa Boston ilihi pus klaska sil ukuk wam.
‘in America so they can sell them this year.’
Ukuk aias hloima kyutan iaka nim baisikl.
‘These weird horses are called “bicycles”.’
Ilip tlus baisikl iaka sil ilip ayu kopa
‘The best bicycle sells (at) more than’
<100> tala. <X> Tlus baisikl iaka sil kopa
‘100 dollars. A good bicycle sells for’
<75> tala. <X> Tanas tlus baisikl
’75 dollars. A fair bicycle’
iaka sil kopa <60> tala. Klunas msaika
‘sells for 60 dollars. Maybe you folks’
kwash chako kakshit kopa kakwa kyutan, kakwa ilo
‘are afraid of getting hurt by a horse like this, so you’
msaika tiki iskom kakwa kyutan. Alki tilikom
‘don’t want to get this kind of horse. Some day people’
kanawi iskom kakwa kyutan.
‘will all get horses like this!’
— from Kamloops Wawa #141 (June 1896), page 131
