Why “hello” isn’t łúsh-sán in the Northern Dialect!
My experience of Southern Dialect (Grand Ronde, Oregon area) speakers is that they’ll say the phrase łush-san for ‘hello’…
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…It’s equivalent to English ‘good day’ and/or Métis French ‘bonjour‘.
The 2012 dictionary from the Grand Ronde Tribes defines this phrase as ‘a fine day’, i.e. just in its literal, compositional meaning.
I don’t know the history of using łush-san for ‘hello’. Is it newfangled? Does it go back to elders’ way of talking?
One thing I do know is that I haven’t found this usage in the Northern Dialect (BC-centered).
In the north, we have (as spelled in Chinuk Pipa),
tlus son = (A) a nice day, nice weather and (B) a holiday; religious feast day.
Both of these are really frequent expressions.
So, there you have it — that seems to be why Northern Chinook Jargon doesn’t say łush-san for ‘hello’!
But the universally known łax̣a(w)yam, spelled klahawiam in the Chinuk Pipa alphabet, works just fine in both dialects.
Northerners are also known to say halo, from English ‘hello’!
