1886, Tacoma, WA: Another northern “or”, and racial stereotyping
The other day, I showed the English word “or” showing up in the Northern Dialect of Chinook Jargon.
Now from a similar time period, we have another sighting of “or“, as well as “no“.
The best image I could find with a search engine, sorry (image credit: Truth Initiative)
I don’t put a lot of confidence in this quotation being someone’s real words, though.
It was un-translated by the newspaper editor, so local folks would’ve understood it okay.
But some elements here, like “skookum tamahnous siwash” and the use of “hykwa”, strike me as non-realistic.
The whole thing reeks of racial stereotyping, down to the largely outmoded (by the 1880’s) characterization of a Native man as wearing hand-me-down military officer garb.
By exactly the same token, though, I expect that the appearance of English words in a Jargon “matrix” here reflects real trends happening locally, as English was making inroads into Indigenous people’s speech.
Have a look —
TALK OF THE TOWN.
What Some People Were Saying on the
Street To-Day.A SIWASH, with soldier coat and ser-
geant’s stripes — Skookum tamahnous si-
wash mahkook kinootl or kapswal ka-
mooks no chicamin mahkook Boston cal-
lipecu. Hyiu hykwa mahsie.
— from the Tacoma (Washington Territory) Evening Telegraph of September 28, 1886, page 3, column 1
In case you need help decoding the Chinuk Wawa…
- Siwash =
sáwásh =
‘Indigenous person’, usually male when it’s White folks talking. - Skookum tamahnous siwash mahkook kinootl =
skúkum-t’əmánəwas-sáwásh mákuk k’áynuł =
‘A strong-spiritpower-having Native buys tobacco’ - or kapswal kamooks =
or kapshwála kʰámuksh =
‘or steals a dog.’ - no chicamin =
no chíkʰəmin =
‘No(t enough) money’ - mahkook Boston callipecu. =
mákuk bástən kalapín =
‘to buy a WhiteMan gun.’ - Hyiu hykwa =
háyú háykʰwa =
‘(It’s) a lot of “Indian money” (dentalium shells).’ - mahsie. =
mási =
‘Thank you.’
