“Less familiar words” in the Northern Dialect (Part 1C: Shaw 1909 continued)
Trekking further into the evergreen woods of Washington, BC, and points north, where a bunch of southern-dialect Chinook Jargon words weren’t known…
Courtesy of the thoughtful 1909 dictionary-maker George C. Shaw of Seattle, we have still more of these “less familiar words” to point out.
As usual, they match what I’ve independently found in my own research on the northern dialect of Chinuk Wawa.
And some of these words are so old, they aren’t even known any more in the southern dialect, so you won’t find them in the Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary of 2012.
One lesson here is — be careful of talking “book Chinook”. Folks will be puzzled by you…!
PART 1C
Page 35
Kwish, (? [i.e. source language undetermined by Shaw]), exclamation of refusal.
Kwit-shad-ie, (S [i.e. Salish source]), hare; rabbit.
Kwulh, or kwult’h, (C [i.e. Chinookan source]), to hit, strike, or wound, (without cutting).
Kwun’-nun, (S), counting; numbers.
Kwutl, (C), literally, fast; to push or squeeze.
L
La-bleed, (F [i.e. French source]), a bridle.
La-boo-ti, (F), bottle.
La-ca-lat, (F), carrot.
Lagh, (C), to tip; to lean; to stoop; to bend over.
La-gwin’, (?), a saw.
La’-kles, (F), fat, oil; grease.
La-lah’, (C), to cheat, trick; joke with.
La-leem’, (F), a file.
La-pehsh, (F), a pole.
La-pelle’, (F), a shovel or spade.
La-pe-osh’, (F), a mattock or hoe.
La-piege, (F), a trap.
La-po-el’, (F), a frying pan, (a stove, — Hale [i.e. Horatio Hale 1846].)
La-pool’, (F), fowl; poultry.
La-poo-shet’, (F), fork.
La-sanjel, (F), girth, sash, belt.
La-see, (F), a saw.
La-sell’, (F), saddle.
La’-shal-loo, (F), plough.
La-shan’-del, (F), a candle.
La-shase, (F), chair.
La-shen’, (F), a chain.
Las-siet, (F), a plate.
La-sway, (F), silk, silken.
La-tahb, (F), table. [I disagree with Shaw here, because this word is known everywhere there was significant Métis influence in northwestern North America.]
La-tlah’, (F), noise.
La-west’, (F), waist-coat, vest.
Le-bah-do, or La-ba-do, (F), a shingle.
Le bis’-kwie, (F), biscuit, crackers, hard bread.
Le-Blau’, (F), a sorrel horse; chestnut colored.
Le-clem’, (F) cream-colored.
Le-cock’, (F) a cock; a fowl.
Le-doo’, (F), finger-
Le-gley, (F & E [i.e. English source also]), a gray horse; gray.
Le-kloo’, (F), nail; nails.
Le-koo’, (F), neck.
Le-ky’e, (?), spot; spotted; a piebald horse.
Le-lo’-ba, (F), ribbon.
Le-loo’, (F), wolf.
Le-mah-to, (F), hammer.
Le-pan’, (F), bread.
Le-pish’-e-mo, saddle-blanket or housing. (See note under Tatoosh, main vocabulary. [i.e. Shaw’s pages 25-26, where he muses on Algonquian-sourced Métis words in the Jargon])
Le-pwau, (F), peas.
Le-sap’, (F), egg; eggs.
Le-see-blo, (F), spurs.
Le-see’-zo, (F), scissors.
Le-sook, (F), sugar.
Le-tah’, (F), the teeth.
Lik-pu’-hu, (?), a sister; an elder sister.
Luk’-ut-chee, (?F), clams.
M
Mah-lie, (S), to forget.
