‘Stamps’, ‘envelopes’, and ‘addresses’ in northern-dialect Chinook Jargon
The wonderful unique thing about Northern Dialect CJ is, people wrote to each other in it, quite a lot.
Chinook salmon stamps (image credit: ebay)
That’s why it’s only in this dialect of Chinuk Wawa that we know words for letter-writing-related concepts.
Even in the best dictionary of the Southern Dialect, the top-notch 2012 Grand Ronde Tribes publication, you’ll search in vain for any traditionally used words for these concepts…
…aside from pípa ‘letter’.
That one’s shared in common with the Northern Dialect, so it may be quite an old word. Remember, starting pretty early in the frontier era, there was a widespread practice of newcomers writing “papers” (pipa / skukum pipa) declaring the character of the Native holder.
I want to share some letter-writing words that I’ve discovered over my years of research in the Northern Dialect. These words will be shown in their Chinuk Pipa spellings, as used in Indigenous people’s letters and in the Kamloops Wawa newspaper.
- stamp(s): stamp, stamps
(A recently borrowed word from conversations with local English-speakers) - envelope:
- anmalup
(Also a recently borrowed spoken-English word, in an Indigenized pronunciation)
- lisak
(This also means ‘a bag, a sack’, which is its only meaning in the Southern Dialect)
- anmalup
- address: nim (kopa lisak etc.)
(Literally ‘name (on the envelope)’) - post office: post-ofis
(Yes, from local English.
The Southern Dialect has just recently, in the last 20 years, started using pʰóst, in expressions like t’wáx̣-pʰóst ’email’) - postal clerk: post-ofis-man
(A natural Chinuk Wawa formation based on the preceding term)
(ADDING, AFTER COMMENTS BY ALEX CODE AT THE FACEBOOK GROUP) —
Naika wawa mirsi kopa maika — I was writing today’s article mainly by looking at the Indigenous-written letters. You’re right —
I do find “post mastir” once in “Kamloops Wawa”.
