Chinook Writing: “Ces pattes de mouche”!
I was reading archival documents the other day and found a delightful description of the Chinook shorthand writing.
One priest was writing a letter to another in the shorthand, in French in this case, and he made fun of his own handwriting in it this way —
Image credit: savour.eu
“ces pattes de mouche”
‘these fly tracks’
It made me laugh.
“Pattes de mouche” is a French idiom for fine, hard-to-read handwriting.
I think sometimes Chinuk Pipa must look that way. Especially to folks who can’t read it!
This also brings up how the Dakelh (a.k.a. Carrier) people of British Columbia have called their language’s syllabary dulkw’ahke, ‘frog feet’.
Adding a note: “pattes de mouche” is indeed an established French phrase for what we call in English “chicken scratches” of writing. I’ve now seen it in the original French-language “Sténographie Duployé: Ecriture Plus Facile…” book!
LikeLike