1890, Grand Ronde area: Quoted Native elder speech
Don’t know how I missed this valuable quotation of Grand Ronde-area speech till now!
This little speech from a Chemeketa (Santiam?) K’alapuyan chief shows a number of features that we’d hope to find from a Grand Ronde Chinuk Wawa speaker about the time when the language was re-creolizing at that reservation.
AN ANECDOTE. — Our short hand reporter saw an old Indian standing on the sidewalk, at Friers’ corner, and thought to engage him in conversation, but the old redskin only said “clowhium!” Pointing across the street to [apparently Charles B.] Moores’ [1849-1930] corner, he opened his mouth and spoke and said:” “Nicker hi yas tie coper Chemeketa tilicum, cluska, ancutta counawa mimiluce. Niker nanich Pokokoke hi yas close tie house? polackile nanich cocqua hi yas ule cut pia seahose; hiu pele pe chil-chil quopa cocqua spose marsh hin chickamen, house yuckwa house inati yow wa, inati yow wa wake tie cocqua; icta mommuck! quota house yuck wa quopa bank. You a Lun; yawwa tie stone we hut, quope ya wa pe Moores cultis old man lacomestick.[“] Now our reporter is a great linguist — probably he can talk more and say less than any other man in the city — but he admits that he never heard any language like that. He thinks it must be the “confounded language no one could understand that broke up the meeting at Babel and scattered the people abroad upon the face of all earth” and he offers Prof. Norman Parrish or any other man who will render the old Indian’s lecture in English, one-fourth of his enormous salary.
— from the Salem (OR) Evening Capital Journal of April 4, 1890, page 4, column 1
I’m no Professor Parrish, but I’m Dr. Robertson, and I accept the challenge.
Clowhium = ɬax̣ayam = ‘Hello!’
That was easy!
Now here’s the rest. It sounds like a reminiscence, and a lament. I’m interested in my readers’ takes on this:
Nicker hi yas tie coper Chemeketa tilicum,
nayka háyás(h) táyí kʰupa chamíkita*-tílixam,
‘I’m the primary chief to the Chemeketa tribe,’
cluska, ancutta counawa mimiluce.’
ɬaska ánqati kʰánawi míməlus.
‘who all died out some time ago.’
Niker nanich Pokokoke hi yas close tie house?
mayka* nánich úkuk hayas-ɬúsh táyí-háws?
‘You see that nice-looking house of some important person?’
polackile nanich cocqua hi yas ule cut pia seahose;
púlakʰli, nánich Ø, kákwa hayas-yúɬqat páya-siyáxus;
‘At night, look at it, it’s like a big-tall glowing face;’
hiu pele pe chil-chil quopa
háyú ____ pi tsíltsil kʰapá,
‘there’s a lot of ___ and brass there,’
cocqua spose marsh hin chickamen, house yuckwa
kákwa-spus másh háyú chíkʰəmin, háws yakwá,
‘seems like it cost a lot of money, the house over here;’
house inati yow wa, inati yow wa wake tie cocqua;
háws ínatay yawá, ínatay yawá wík táyí kákwa;
‘the house across (the street) over there, across there it isn’t grand like that;’
icta mommuck!
íkta mámuk?!
‘What’s happened?’
quota house yuck wa quopa bank.
qʰáta háws yakwá kʰapa bǽnk*?
‘How is it that the house over here is in (what used to be)* a bank?’
You a Lun;
____
‘____;’
yawwa tie stone we hut, quope ya wa
yawá Ø táyí stún-úyxat, kʰapa yawá,
‘Over there was a rocky path, over there,’
pe Moores cultis old man lacomestick.
pi Ø mórz* Ø kʰə́ltəs úl-man lakúm-stík.
‘and at Moore’s there was just an ancient pine tree.’
A few observations:
- This speaker is of an older generation, so he still uses the Intensifier prefix hayas(h)-, whereas the kids who were being born around that time at Grand Ronde switched wholly over to the Intensifying Adverb drét.
- Also due to his age, he uses an older-style pronunciation < quapa > for the preposition we now only know as kʰapa at Grand Ronde.
- The chief also appears to be using the distinctly lower Columbia-area word kʰapá, meaning ‘there’.
- He has the distinctly Grand Ronde usage of kʰə́ltəs to mean ‘only’, a new development there from the previously existing senses ‘no-good; for no purpose’, etc.
In a nutshell, this elder speaks the way we’d expect from a Grand Ronde person of his generation and time. It’s precious — and all too rare — to find the words of such a person.
Bonus fact:
The name chamíkita ~ Chemeketa is K’alapuyan for the Salem area. Paul S. McCartney’s dictionary says it’s literally ‘summer place’.
