íləp ‘first’ may also be from Lower Chehalis Salish

The 2012 Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary of Chinuk Wawa suggests the Cowlitz Salish language as a possible source of CW’s íləp ‘ahead, first, before’. 

We need to add:

download (60)

Image credit: QuoteFancy

This word is also in linguists’ Lower Chehalis Salish field notes as ʔílp ‘first’, with researcher JP Harrington commenting: “A Chin[ookan]. origin word, not Cheh[alis]. But when asked Cheh. gives ʼî·lp, 1st.”

We find it also in Quinault Salish, ʔílp. (Researcher Ruth Modrow cites it sometimes with a final /s/, but, that’s her extrapolation from complex forms where a nominal is compounded onto it.)

These differ from Upper Chehalis Salish túlap — although that may well be related.

The word íləp is definitely not Lower Chinookan, judging from a thorough scouring through the “Chinook Texts” of Charles Cultee published by Franz Boas.

Out of all 4 Southwest Washington Salish languages, it’s Lower Chehalis that historically played the big role in influencing Chinuk Wawa.

So I’d suggest that yet again, we have Lower Chehalis input to the Jargon here.

ikta mayka chaku-kəmtəks?
What have you learned?