1916: How to say “Ish Kabibble” in southern-dialect Chinook Jargon
Very important, as John Peabody Harrington might say in his field notes: here’s Grand Ronde’s style of Chinuk Wawa, spotted in the wild…
I don’t know what local tussle prompted these comments, but it’s both hilarious to find an early “Ish Kabibble” AND some perfect Grand Ronde Jargon together.
Image credit: Wikipedia
Both bits are untranslated, for the Grand Ronde-area readers who obviously already “got it”.
A[mos]. N[ahum]. [King] Halleck [1845-1920] says if the Chi-
nook should express his indiffer-
ence he would not say “I should
worry” nor yet “Ishka bibble”
but “Wak-ik ti-kopa-nika.”
— from the Monmouth (OR) Herald of October 6, 1916, page 2, column 1
That’s wík-íkta kʰapa nayka, ‘it’s nothing to me’.
A very nice Grand Ronde-flavored variant on the famous northern-dialect Jargon phrase “Cultus kopa nika!” (‘It’s worthless/unimportant to me!’)
In the journals of Jarvis and Hannington from 1874 and 1875 a native fellow from as I recall Ft St James used ”cultis copa mika, cultis copa nika” translated as “not good for you, not good for me”, which is a vast understatement! It just seems like a little different usage of the term.
Hugh
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hayu masi, Hugh! I’m going to track down those journals now!
Dave Robertson
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