Didactic dialogues in CW dictionaries, Part 4N (Gibbs 1863 ex phrases/sentences: How [the heck]?)

Let’s get into the wherefores and how-to’s!

(Image credit: The Emotionally Naked Blog)

(All installments in this mini-series.)

Any self-respecting dictionary of Chinook Jargon will tell you that < kahta >, i.e. qʰata, means ‘how?’

Well, maybe those dead White men had a bit too much self-regard. How could they!

Because in reality, this word of Chinuk Wawa has always carried an overtone of exasperation or resignation. You should mentally add that fact to your understanding of the language.

Yes, pidgin & creole languages are perfectly able to express all kinds of emotions…Don’t make me mad by ignorantly claiming otherwise.

It’s not pure coincidence or kʰəltəs that the examples of < kahta > in George Gibbs’s fine 1863 dictionary are at least 75% pissed off:

• Kahta mika mamook okook?
  ‘Why do you do that?’
  (qʰáta mayka mámuk úkuk?
  — A straightforward literal translation, except that as I noted, < kahta > really functions as ‘why on earth’ instead of ‘how’.)
• Kahta mika chahko?
  ‘How did you come?’
  (qʰáta mayka cháku?
  — A more literal expression. But again, this same phrasing can also validly express something like ‘What the hell are you doing here?!’)
• Kahta mika?
  ‘What is the matter with you?’
  (qʰáta mayka?
  — Notice the Jargon’s strong tendency to put a negative spin on < kahta >! [Compare Southern Dialect munk-qʰata ‘mess with, foul it up; do harm or damage to.] In modern Grand Ronde talk, which is much more influenced by English, this same phrase is used for the casual greeting, ‘How are you?’ I expect in Fort Vancouver days, such a meaning was never intended by this expression.) 
• pe kahta?
  ‘and why so?’
  (…pi qʰáta?…
  — Again much more on the side of “negative-minded < kahta >” than of a “how” interpretation.)

Well…

qʰata mayka təmtəm?
What the heck do you think?