Notes from Yahooskin Northern Paiute (Klamath Tribes)
One Pacific Northwest language that I’ve had a harder time finding reference materials on is Northern Paiute.
Specifically, Northern Paiute as spoken in what’s now the state of Oregon.
Image credit: Klamath Tribes
Here are a few points relevant to Chinook Jargon that I’ve gleaned from some recent reading on that language:
* There is no /l/ sound in Northern Paiute, per William Bright 373 s.v. PAULINA. This is relevant to our ongoing observation that /l/ and /n/ sounds had a strong tendency to alternate in earlyish Chinuk Wawa due to various tribal languages’ tendency to interchange the two sounds.
* Typical for Northern Paiute- (and closely related language-) speakers, the Yahooskins are known by a prominent item in their diet: yapa:[-]dɨka:ʔa “ipos eaters”, per NUMU YADUA language lessons p. 25. The word ipos has made appearances on my website. I suspect it was used in local Chinook Jargon.
* More evidence that “wocus” was an item of trade and intercultural importance is the seeming loan of this Klamath-language word into the unrelated Yahooskin Northern Paiute, hugasi. Wocus was also surely in local Chinook Jargon and English.
