Learning from the Lane learners (Part 7: kʰapá-alta)
Today’s Lane Community College learner to learn from is Leslie Wells…
…who wrote an article in Jargon titled “Zoey Holsclaw: pus-kwansəm-miɬayt-lalang tilixam” (page 13).
(Download / print it for free from this link.)
I take that subtitle as “Language Keeper”. It’s literally saying “a for-ever-having-the language person”.
In a section telling how then-4-year-old Zoey was taught southern-dialect Chinuk Wawa by older sister Ali, I like the expression “kʰapá-alta“. I take this as “at that time” (it’s literally ‘(over) there-then’). Nice way to distinguish from the extremely frequent plain alta ‘now; then’!
It reminds me of the northern-dialect yawa, which is literally ‘there’ but is constantly used to mean ‘then’.
