1859: Hias cumtux!
[Edited to correct my early-morning misreading! hayu masi to Alex, Norbert, and Darrin.]
An early Oregon newspaper notice is about half Chinook!
Hias Cumtux.
ALL persons indebted to me are requested to potlatch
blackhiack.P.D. PALMER.
Feb. 1, 1859.
— from the Salem (OR) Weekly Oregon Statesman of February 15, 1859, page 3, column 4
Hias Cumtux should mean something like ‘loudly hear’ in decent Chinuk Wawa. However, (A) I’ve found a couple other quotations using this expression to mean ‘understand perfectly’, and (B) I suspect these two words are being used as loans in English, so then we might take them like a ‘big notice’.
“Potlatch black” seems like ‘give (until I’m in the) black’, i.e. till I’m no longer in debt. Maybe “black” is just a misprint of “back”, though! Nope, it’s “potlatch hiack” = ‘give fast’, that is, ‘pay me back soon’. English-speaking Settlers tended to express ‘pay’ by potlatch chickamin (‘give money’).
Dave I think it says “are requested to potlach hiack.”
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Hello Alex. I was just going to write the same thing. From the way this scan looks, that’s probably not “bl” but an h followed by an i. So, instantly I was thinking, “hiack” – (ha)ayaq – “quickly.”
Is it this?
“All persons indebted to me are requested to give (silent it) quickly.”
This person is saying, “If you are indebted to me, just pay me back already!”
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thanks guys, I wrote the post in a hurry early in the morning :0 I’ll fix it and credit you! Dave
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