1898: Chinuk Wawa ad in Hawaii — a contest!
Strange but true, we find various connections between Hawai’i and Chinuk Wawa!
From a few Hawai’ian-language loanwords in CW, to Hawai’ian people talking “Chinook”, to appearances of the Jargon in those islands, there are many ties binding the Pacific Northwest’s “international idiom” with the Kingdom.
Here is our latest discovery of that sort, and it’s phrased as a contest.
So, for the pure glory of it, how about you readers compete to post the best translation of this ad in the Comments to today’s post?
Further questions, if you care to tackle them:
How fluent is this Chinook Jargon?
Who do you think wrote it — what might have been their ethnicity? Their first language?
Are there any “nulls’ in this selection? (For example, “silent IT”, etc.?)
Chee nika ko inati skookum chuck tenas mitlite okook illahie kah hiyou muck-amuck, hiyou chuck, pe hiyou hyas klosh VACUUM OILS. Alta nika clattawa siah copa hyas canim pe wake kopet kumtucks mika illahie.
The above graceful testimonial has been given to the Pacific Hardware Co., Ltd., by a gentleman whose native tongue is not often heard on these shores.
To the person first giving a correct translation of the above we will give his choice of any pocket knife in our show case.
Pacific Hardware Co., Ltd.,
Fort Street.
— from the Honolulu (HI) Evening Bulletin of August 4, 1898, page 6, column 5
Not amazing Chinook, but not the worst either. Written by a euro-settler.
Chee nika ko inati skookum chuck
chxi nayka q’uʔ inatay ع skukum-tsəqw²
I’ve just arrived from across the rapids
kopa tenas mitlite okook illahie kah hiyou muck-amuck,
kʰapa³ tənəs⁴ miɬayt Ø⁵ ukuk iliʔi qʰa Ø⁶ hayu məkʰmək
in order to stay a little while (in) that land where (there’s) lots of food,
hiyou chuck, pe hiyou hyas klosh VACUUM OILS.
hayu tsəqw, pi hayu hayas(h) ɬush *vakʰyum *oyəls
lots of water, and lots of good vacuum oils.
Alta nika clattawa siah copa hyas canim
alta nayka ɬatwa saya kʰapa hayas(h) kənim⁷
Now I’m going far away in a big canoe
pe wake kopet kumtucks mika illahie.
pi wik⁸ kʰəpit-kəmtəks mayka iliʔi.
but I won’t forget your land.
1 – silent / left out preposition
2 – He probably meant ocean here? If so, he should have said salt chuck
3 – definitely a sign of Northern or settler speaker using kopa instead of pus here.
4 – I would kind of want a “lili” with that
5 – silent preposition / included in miɬayt
6 – silent existential copula
7 – hayas kənim is a pretty dead give away that this guy is a euro-settler playing Indian. If you were genuinely making a long journey you’d be in a “ship” or “bot”. Only people impersonating what they think of as an ignorant Indigenous person would call it a big canoe. For an example, see Le Jeune’s narrative of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
8 – wik is a hint it’s more likely to be a settler as this is pretty clearly a Northern speaker. That or the guy is more likely to be from Washington/Oregon than BC. The spelling is pretty standardized (though a little unusual in some spots)
and typical of settler folks. This is probably a guy who has genuinely learned Chinook by speaking and not just copied out of a dictionary and translated English word for word. That said, his Chinook is a bit clumsy in places.
The other obvious hints that it’s a euro-settler is that it’s written by a business owner, the writing in question is a paid ad in an English-language settler paper, and this style of “translate the Chinook” challenge was not an uncommon thing done by euro-settlers. You often see it with their invitations etc.
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