1893: Real-world Northern Chinook Jargon (Part 1…)
Every time we find documents of Chinook Jargon being applied to real life by actual speakers, we learn so much!
I’m launching a mini-series on “Real-World Northern Chinook Jargon”.
(Here’s a link to all installments in this mini-series.)
Image credit: DreamsTime
Here we’ll see concepts and terminology that aren’t in any Chinuk Wawa dictionary, but that were actually used and understood.
And we’ll get priceless ideas about how you actually talk about the real world, when you’re a speaker of the Jargon!
Let’s start today with Kamloops Wawa #84 (June 25, 1893), page 102.
Today’s material was almost 100% certainly written by Thomas Sanderson Bulmer.
< Sun, moon & planets. 1° The Sun. >
Ukuk son iaka patlach lait kopa nsaika pi iaka mamuk-wam nsaika
that sun (s)he give light to us and (s)he make-warm us
‘That sun that gives light to us and that warms us’iaka < 92 > milion mails saia kopa iakwa. Iaka < 1 250 000 >
(s)he 92 million mile-s far from here. (s)he 1,250,000
‘is 92 million miles away from here. It’s 1,250,000’taims ilip-aias kopa ukuk ilihi. Spos nsaika ilihi aias
time-s more big than this earth. if our earth big
‘times bigger than this earth. If our earth was the size of’kakwa tanas apil, kakwa ig, son iaka kakwa < 60 > tons ukuk apils
like little apple, like egg, sun (s)he like 60 ton-s those apple-s
‘a little apple, or egg, the sun would be like 60 tons of those apples.’< 2° Mercury. 35 > milion mails kopa son mitlait Mirkyuri
2° Mercury 35 million mile-s from sun be.located Mercury
‘35 million miles from the sun is Mercury.’
