1891: Yes sir, it’s a boy!
“Yes, sir!”
We’ve seen it before, and I hear it again now:
Settlers had a habit of considering Chinuk Wawa’s nawítka, s(h)íks(h) — which means ‘yes/it’s true, friend’ — with a slangy English-language “Yes, sir!”
See what you think:
BORN.
CHAMBERS .- At Eddyville, Benton
county, May 12th, 1891, to the wife of
Robert Chambers, a boy. Nawitka six.
— from the Albany (OR) State Rights Democrat of May 22, 1891, page 3, column 6
