Didactic dialogues in CW dictionaries, Part 4Q (Gibbs 1863 ex phrases/sentences: Commands and talking to dogs)
Today’s selection from the always high-quality Chinuk Wawa sentences of George Gibbs focuses on giving orders. I reckon we’d say iskam (Ø)! to tell a dog to ‘fetch!’ Read on…
súp’na! ɬúsh kʰámuksh! (Image credit: US Dept of Defense)
These imperative expressions are found in Gibbs’s 1863 dictionary.
Let’s start with positive commands, formed in the simplest way possible, by just leaving out a subject “you” (mayka for singular, msayka for plural) —
- Lolo okook kopa mika. ‘Take that home with you.’
(lúlu úkuk kʰupa mayka.
*ambiguous translation above*:
‘Take that with you.’
and
‘Take that to your place.’
are both valid!) - Mahsh okook salmon. ‘Throw away that fish.’
(másh úkuk sámən.
Did you notice, Gibbs’s Fort Vancouver-area Jargon uses salmon as a generic word for all fish? This is the same thing Grand Ronde’s Chinuk Wawa does. It perpetuates a very old metaphor in many other Indigenous languages.
FYI, mash can also mean to ‘leave it behind’, or even ‘waste it’.) - Mahsh mika capo. ‘Take off your coat.’
(másh mayka kʰapú.
Another of the meanings of mash!) - Mahsh! ‘(to a dog) Get out!’
(másh!
And still another sense of mash!) - Mitlite! ‘(imp[erative]) Sit down.’
(míɬayt!
This phrase can also be used for ‘Stay (there)!’, since we’re on the subject of talking to dogs.) - Pahtlatsh weght. ‘Give me some more.’
(pá(t)lach (Ø) wə́x̣t.
‘Give it/some again.’
As simple as it is, this is actually a cool example of how the Ø pronoun, “silent IT”, gets used. Beyond just meaning ‘it’, this pronoun also works for indefinite things like expressing ‘some (of it)’, and even broadly for ‘them’ (a bunch of stuff — but not people).)
There’s one expression in this bunch that isn’t necessarily a command, in terms of its syntactic / grammatical structure…
- Mahtwillie! ‘(as a command) Keep in [toward shore].’
(máɬx̣wəli!
As a linguist, I have a hard time seeing this as being technically a command. Even though the adverb máɬx̣wəli can also get used as a verb in Jargon, as can 99% of the words, this would be a Stative verb. And I’ve previously observed many times that it takes extra work to turn a Stative into a command in Chinuk Wawa. I feel you’d have to say something like ɬúsh-pus máɬx̣wəli nsayka, ‘we should be toward shore’. Which I doubt very many people would say, here in Reality.
However, duh, everyone would understand you, and react accordingly, when you just exclaim máɬx̣wəli! In just the same way, and in the same canoe, you’d get what you want by exclaiming ɬáwá! (‘Slow(ly)!’)
There’s one negative command (“prohibitive”) in this bunch. As is common for such expressions, it’s actually identical to a negative statement. Learn that trick, friend.
- Wake mika lagh kopa okook house. ‘Don’t lean against that house.’
(wík mayka láx̣w kʰupa úkuk háws.
More literally, ‘Don’t you be in a leaning position against that house.’
Identical with saying ‘You’re not in a leaning position against that house.’
Reminds me of certain Americans who say ‘I know you’re not leaning against that house!’ 😊
Because láx̣w is another Stative verb, I also refer you to my preceding comments about how to turn máɬx̣wəli into a command — its negative command form would parallel what we see here, for instance you could say wik mayka máɬx̣wəli, even though I still don’t see why you’d say that!)
