1878, Thurston County Fair, WA: Hyu snass…
Unique spellings! Yay!
Why, that implies the following is someone’s real knowledge of spoken Chinuk Wawa!
Image credit: Yelm Online
Hard to pin this sample to one dialect or another — which is an interesting fact by itself.
Apparently the locals needed no translation of the following report on one of the first Thurston County Fairs:
HYU snass okoke sun, pe hyu ma-
satche illehe. Quanisum chuck,
quanisum sick tum-tum conway til-
lecum mittlelite copa Fair Grounds.
Our new friends from “Way down
in Maine” will see from this that
the evil could not have been averted.
— from the Olympia (WA) Washington Standard of October 19, 1878, page 1, column 2
Commentary:
HYU snass okoke sun, pe hyu masatche illehe.
háyú snás úkuk-sán, pi háyú masáchi ílihi.
much rain this-day, and much nasty land.
‘There’s lots of rain today, and lots of nasty places.’
Quanisum chuck,
kwánsəm chə́qw,
always water,
‘It’s always damp,’
quanisum sick tum-tum conway tillecum mittlelite copa Fair Grounds.
kwánsəm sík-tə́mtəm kʰánawi tílixam míłayt kʰupa fér*-gráwnds*.
always sick-heart all people be.there at fair-grounds.
‘(and) everyone who’s at the Fair Grounds is constantly glum.”
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