Times of the day in northern Chinuk Wawa (versus southern)
When we’re talking Northern Dialect Chinook Jargon, we have particular ways of expressing the parts of the day.
These are pretty simple to understand & learn — ‘little day’ (or ‘the day/sun is young’), ‘middle (of the) day’, ‘dying day’ (or ‘the day/sun is dead’), and ‘middle (of the) night’:
nsai’ika nsaika ‘we’
tlap tlap ‘have’
tana’z-son, tanas son morning,
sit’kom-son, sitkom son noon,
mem’loos-son, mimlus son sun set,
poo’lakle, pulakli night
sit’kom sitkom mid-
poo’lakle. pulakli night.
— from JMR Le Jeune, “Chinook Rudiments”, 1924
Also in the north we have drit tanas son (‘really early morning’), and kopit sitkom son ‘afternoon’ (‘after the middle of the day’).
Contrast can be made with some Southern Dialect expressions (from the 2012 Grand Ronde dictionary),
- chxi-san ‘morning’ (literally: ‘new day’),
- katsaq-san ‘noon’ (‘middle (of the) day’),
- and tənəs-pulakʰli ‘evening’ (little-night) — and
- lax̣w-san (literally ’tilting sun’) / kʰimt’a sitkum-san (‘after the middle of the day’) for ‘afternoon’.
