Back-translation challenge: “The Coming of the Horse” by HM Painter
Surely you’ve signed up for your free JSTOR account, yeah?
JSTOR.org is where you can read 100 research articles a month for free.
That’s generous! I don’t think I know many linguists who are able to read 100 articles a month.
I use JSTOR.org regularly, to access valuable material relating to Chinook Jargon and its history.
Such as:
Walla Walla Chief Uma-som-kin on painted horse (image credit: University of Oregon Libraries)
HM Painter’s very fine 1946 article “The Coming of the Horse” in The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 37:2(155-157), in “The Teacher’s Section”.
Here’s the irresistible opening to his article:
DURING the years 1863 to 1867 my father, Colonel W. C. Painter,
was the manager of Flander’s and Felton’s wholesale store at Wallula,
in Washington Territory.Among the Indians of the community was an aged, enfeebled, gray-
haired man who, as was a custom, selected my father as his especial
white friend — “tillicum.” Among this Indian’s many tales of the days
long past was his narration of how horses first came to the Walla
Walla Valley.
Painter follows this with several instructive points of background information.
Then he introduces an oral history narration that’s just begging to be back-translated into the original frontier-era Chinook Jargon:
Now the story told by the old Indian. It was told in Chinook jargon
made vivid by the mobile expressions and interpretative gestures, con-
veying, even more than the words, the progress of the story.
So use the free JSTOR account that you’re going to set up, and go read the story, and see if you can “hear” what it sounded like in Chinuk Wawa!
