Lempfrit’s legendary, long-lost linguistic legacy (Part 7)
More discoveries!
I’ll continue to underline any significant divergences between RV Grant 1946/Anonymous 1849 and this manuscript.
The 7th pair of page images in this overlooked resource on Fort Vancouver Chinuk Wawa….
- Saponah̃ – sac de jonc (‘bulrush bag’)
- Kwelkwel – hibou (‘(eared) owl’
RV Grant 1946/Anonymous 1849 has “crapaud”. - Opouts – anus, queue(,) derrière du canot (‘anus, tail, rear of the canoe’)
- Ilep – devant, extrémité d’un objet (‘front, end of an item’)
- Lezōf – oeuf (‘egg’)
- apta – oeuf de saumon (‘salmon egg’)
- Wah̃ek – crapeau (‘frog’)
- Itshout – ours (‘bear’)
- Tlăkătăk – Sauterelle (‘grasshopper’)
- Lapipe – pipe (‘pipe’)
- Mălăh̃ – boite de fer blanc, fer blanc(‘tin box, tin’)
- Tokola – noisette (‘hazelnut’)
- amoté – fraise (‘strawberry’)
- Itlawa* – framboise (‘raspberry’)
Probably Ittawa. Compare Lower Chinookan é-it-to-wa ‘salmon berry’?. Which was borrowed from Salish! Compare Proto-Coast-Salish (therefore ancient)*yətəwan, which in SW WA (“Tsamosan”) Salish has developed into yə́t(ə)waʔ. The borrowability of this word is further proven by a form in the dictionary of one Tsamosan language, Cowlitz, where we find < e′twanac >, which M. Dale Kinkade notes “includes Sahaptin -aaš ‘plant’,” i.e. the word has been loaned/shared with yet another unrelated language. - Kastik – baume (‘balm’)
I’ve written separately about this one on my website. - Kalikali – corbeau (‘crow’)
Presumably a misreading by Lempfrit of Demers’s kahkah, considering that we know this word as k’ák’aʔ from the 2012 Grand Ronde dictionary. It’s < ᴋaᴋa > (i.e. using the “broken K” letter) in Demers, Blanchet, and St. Onge 1871. D-B-S 1871 doesn’t seem to have any potentially confusable entry like a *kahkah* / *kaHkaH*, i.e. a reduplication of the word for ‘where’. (A fun oddity is that that reduplication is mostly preserved in the northern dialect, which has virtually no other reduplicated forms, whereas in the south, which used to have it (see Gibbs’ & Stuarts’ vocabularies), we now only seem to know the synonym yakwa-yakwa ‘here and there’ (see Grand Ronde Tribes 2012).) - Lépoul – poule (‘chicken’)
- Lékok – coq (‘rooster’)
- ayas tom tom stik ⌉ (‘big heart wood’) – Sureau (‘elderberry’)
Spōhōh ⌋
I’ve written a separate article on this website about this species’ names. - Tlékamaks, fruit de houblon sauvage(,) mures noires (‘fruit of wild hops, black mulberries’)
The plain “mures” in RV Grant 1946/Anonymous 1849 means ‘blackberries’, as I understand. On the ‘wild hops’ connection, I’ve written a separate article on this website.
- Tlkop – morceau (‘piece’)
I have to admit I hadn’t much noticed this use of the word for ‘cut’ — otherwise only a verb — although it appears in the Demers, Blanchet, & St. Onge 1871 dictionary that I’ve used quite a lot. It’s very infrequent in Chinuk Wawa for a verbal root to gain use as a noun; another example I can think of is wawa in the meaning of ‘words, speech, conversation’. - Sopenininepou (‘jump(ing) louse’) – puce (‘flea’)
Looks as if the syllable in, or at least the n, got accidentally repeated here. - Kamossak – rassade (‘glass bead’)
- La langue – langue (‘tongue/language’)
- Kiponĕt [sic] – aiguille (‘needle’)
- Pin ⌉ – épingle (‘pin’)
Kekwians [sic]⌋
Nice to see the English-sourced word pin documented within earlier, southern-dialect Jargon; it’s a common word in later, northern-dialect use. Lempfrit’s spelling “kekwians” would seem to suggest influence from his French literacy, where almost all “qu” words are pronounced as if they start only with “k”. - nem – nom (‘name’)
- La shantel – chandelle (‘candle’)
- Sonté – Dimanche (‘Sunday’)
- Sonté haus* (‘Sunday building’),- Eglise (‘church’)
- Lachaish – chaise (‘chair’)
- La planche – planche (‘board’)
- Sōp – Savon (‘soap’)
- Tala – Dollars, argent (‘dollars, money’)
- Lachaine, – chaine (‘chain’)
- Léklou – clou (‘nail’)
- Lakasset, cassette, malle (‘box, trunk’)
I’ve previously written about how this is a French Canadianism. - Lawouen – avoine (‘oats’)
- l’om* – rhum (‘rum’)
Also reported as hard to read by RV Grant for Anonymous 1846. - Wain – vin (‘wine’)
