AF Chamberlain’s field notes of Chinuk Wawa from SE British Columbia (Part 12: mend, bad, strong water, tired)

And still more new discoveries! Plus, confirmation of stuff we’ve found elsewhere in the Northern Dialect of Chinook Jargon!

Chamberlain’s “c” is the “sh” sound, and his “tc” is the “ch” sound. His “ä” is the “a” in “cat”, a frequent sound in the Northern Dialect.

Stuff in orange here seems like new discoveries to me — different from what we’ve found in other places’ use of Chinuk Wawa.

(A link to all installments in this mini-series)

(A link to all installments in this mini-series!)

• skin (E[nglish].) – ‘skin’
• skin cu – ‘mocassin’ [moccasin]
  Not sure why this legitimate, well-known Jargon phrase is crossed out! Literally, ‘skin shoes’, shoes made from animal hide.)
• skū́kEm – ‘strong, powerful; good’
  • mä́mūk skū́kEm – ‘to fasten, to strengthen, to mend, to repair‘
    Literally, to ‘make strong’, but the orange-highlighted senses seem to partake of the innovative Settler-influenced usage of skukum as ‘excellent’.
  • hḗlō skū́kEm – ‘weak, bad, not durable’
    Literally, ‘not strong’. The ‘bad’ sense is innovative also.
• skū́kEm haus – ‘jail, prison’
  Literally, a ‘strong building’. 
• skū́kEm tcEk – ‘rapids in river; whisky‘
  Literally, ‘strong water’. Chamberlain routinely records the word for ‘water’ in the Settler-influenced pronunciation ending in /k/ rather than its original /qw/.
• skū́kEm tÉmtEm – ‘brave, valiant’
  Literally, a ‘strong heart’. 
• skū́kEm wā́wā – ‘to make a strong or a good speech; a strong or good speech’
  LIterally ‘to speak strongly’ and ‘strong words’. 
• smōk – ‘smoke, vapor, fog, etc.’
• sóleks – ‘angry, anger’
• sópinā – ‘to jump, to leap’
  Chamberlain records this word with plain /p/ rather than original /p’/, but this isn’t proof of pronunciation. In the 1890s virtually no researchers (and this includes his teacher Franz Boas) were consistently hearing the difference between these two sounds. 
• spōs (E.) – ‘if, suppose, etc.’
• spūn (E.) – ‘spoon’
• stick stick (E.) – ‘stick, tree, wood, lumber; wooden, of wood’
  • ténäs stick – ‘small tree, piece of wood’
    Literally, ‘little wood’.
  • haiä́s stick – ‘large tree, [large] piece of wood’
    Literally, ‘big wood’.
  • sítkEm stick – ‘part of tree, log, etc.’
    Literally, ‘half wood’.
• stōn – ‘stone, rock; bone; horn, hard substance’
• tai’d – ‘tired’
  • haiyu tai’d – ‘fatigued’
    Literally, ‘much tired’. I’m not sure what the apostrophe in Chamberlain’s spelling represents!
• taiī́ – ‘chief, leader’
  • haiä́s taiī́ – ‘head chief, prince, king’
    Literally, ‘big chief’. 
• taim – ‘time’
  • mEkamEk taim – ‘meal-time’
    Literally, ‘eating time’.
• tā́’lkī – ‘yesterday, some time ago’
  This would seem a Settler-influenced pronunciation; compare the 2012 Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary with táʔanłkʰi with old Settler-oriented dictionary spellings like tahlkie, and with Northern Dialect tanki as found in “Kamloops Wawa” etc.
• tāmā́nōwEs – ‘shaman, “medicine man”; sorcery, magic, “medicine” ‘
  Chamberlain routinely starts this word with plain /t/, not its original /t’/; again we have to note that few researchers were yet good at hearing the difference in the 1890s. 
  • skū́kEm tāmā́nōwEs – ‘a powerful medicine man’
    Literally, ‘strong medicine-man’.
• tcā́kō – ‘to come; to become, etc.’
  • mä́mūk tcā́kō – ‘to bring’
    Literally, ‘make come’. 
  • hḗlō tcā́kō – ‘to stay away, not to come’
    Literally, ‘not come’. 
  • haiä́k tcā́kō – ‘to come quickly, in a hurry’
    Literally, ‘quickly come’. Chamberlain records the word for ‘quickly’ in the Settler-influenced pronunciation that starts with /h/.
• tcEk – ‘water, liquid, etc.’
  • skū́kEm tcEk – ‘rapids in river; whisky’
    Literally, ‘strong water’. 
  • salt tcEk – ‘sea, ocean, salt water’
    Literally, ‘salt water’.
  • mEkamEk tcEk – ‘to drink’
    Literally, ‘eat/drink water’. 
• tcíkamin – ‘iron, metal, money’
• tcíkamin lōp – ‘chain’
  Literally, ‘metal rope’. 

ikta mayka chaku-kəmtəks?
What have you learned?