The opposite of kʰə́ltəs? íləp!
What’s an antonym of ‘no-good; worthless; useless’ — kʰə́ltəsh / kaltash / kultus — in Chinook Jargon?
Oddly enough, it can be ‘first’ — íləp / ilip / ilep!
“The world’s first useless candle” (image credit: Youtube)
This is an example of the kind of meaning connections that I’ll be documenting in my Great Dictionary of the Northern Dialect.
Here’s an example of how this works. Read & learn!
Nanich ukuk kalakala
‘Look at the birds’klaska flai sahali kopa win. Wik klaska mamuk ilihi(;)
‘that fly up on the wind. They don’t work the ground;’wik klaska mash ikta kopa ilihi, wik klaska mamuk haws
‘they don’t leave anything on the ground; they don’t build houses’kah klaska lolo ayu makmak, pi kwanisim klaska tlap
‘where they bring lots of food, but they keep getting’makmak. ST tlus nanich klaska, pi msaika, msaika
‘food. God takes care of them, and you’re’ilip kopa kalakala, ST mamuk msaika pus msaika taii
‘ahead of (more important than) birds; God made you to be chiefs’kopa ilihi, wik na alki iaka ilip tlus nanich msaika pi
‘on the earth; doesn’t he also take care of you so’msaika tlap msaika makmak?
‘you manage to get your food?’
— “Kamloops Wawa” #126 (March 1895), page 41 (Bishop Durieu’s New Testament)
