Didactic dialogues in CW dictionaries, Part 8A (Prosch’s 1912 ms. dictionary)
Dleit naika wawa masi kopa Alik Kod, yaka wawa kopa okok kopa naika web-sait.
Alex Code saw another item for our thick file on “Didactic Dialogues in Dictionaries of Chinuk Wawa“.
These teaching-oriented conversations can be quite a resource, so please click that link!
Today we get to the very obscure (and ill-fated) dictionary of Thomas W Prosch, out of Seattle.
Here’s the first part of Prosch’s “Conversation in Chinook” from page 106 of the manuscript version of his dictionary (yes, he also published the book, but most copies burned up). It’s both Settler “accented” and fluent; I’ll add to Prosch’s presentation style:
Conversation in Chinook.
Translated literally, word for word, Chinook is exceedingly crude. What are called free translations,
are desirablein which omitted words and known meanings are supplied, are desirable and necessary. In the following, and generally throughout this work, free translations are used:
- Klahowyu, six? How are you, sir? [1]
ɬax̣áwya, síks.
hello, friend.
{My translation: ‘Hello, friend.’}- Klahowyu, siwash? How do you do, Indian. [2]
ɬax̣áwya, sáwásh.
hello, Native.
{‘Hello, Native person’.}- Nika kloshe. [3] Okoke mika mahkoke house? [4] I’m well. Is this your store?
nayka ɬúsh. úkuk mayka mákuk-háws?
I good. this your buy-house?
{‘I’m all right. Is this your store?’}- Nowitka. Tikkee iktas? [5] Yes. Want to buy anything?
nawítka. tíki íktas?
yes. want thing-s?
{‘Yes. Want some things?’}- Hiyu iktas nika tikkee, [6] pee halo chikamin. [7] I want many things, but I haven’t any money.
háyú íkta-s nayka tíki, pi hílu chíkʰəmin.
many thing-s I want, but none money.
{‘There’s lots of things I want, but there’s no money.’}
Kumtux kah nika iskum [8] mahmoke? Do you know where I can get work?
kə́mtəks qʰá nayka ískam mámuk?
know where I grab work?
{‘Know where I can get my hands on some work?’}- Nowitka, nika kumtux, spose mika skookum pee wake layzee. Yes, I know where, if you are able and willing.
nawítka, nayka kə́mtəks, spus mayka skúkum pi wík lísi.
yes, I know, if you strong and not lazy.
{‘Yes, I do, if you’re strong and hardworking.’}
Nika tikkee man kopa [9] mahmoke pish. I want men to catch fish.
nayka tíki mán kʰupa mamuk-písh.
I want man for make-fish.
{‘I want some guys for fishing.’}
Kah mika chahko? Where are you from?
qʰá mayka cháku?
where you come?
{‘Where do you come from?’}
Some notes:
- Settlers often thought of ɬax̣áwya as meaning ‘how are you?’ instead of ‘hello’, and síks as ‘sir’ (when addressing a White man) instead of ‘friend’.
- I have doubts that anyone would address a stranger as ‘Native person’ nowadays, and it sounds artificial for 1912 as well.
- This word order (‘I good’) seems English-influenced, compared to the reverse, which would be unremarkable in Jargon.
- The same remark can be made for the word order ‘this your buy-house?’, compared with the normal ‘your buy-house this?’
- Saying ‘want stuff?’ without a subject pronoun isn’t terribly common or normal in Jargon, but we often find Settlers treating Jargon as being more pidginized than it was.
- Putting the quantity ‘many things’ up front in the sentence (even though it’s the object of the verb) is very fluent.
- Again a pronoun has been left out; I would expect to hear ‘none my money’ instead.
- Iskam is a very Settler choice of word to express ‘getting’ work. Many Settlers seem to have been kind of deaf to the fact that iskam means ‘to get something on purpose; to pick it up; to collect it’. I would expect t’ɬap here, which means managing to get something; finding’, etc.
- Settlers also often missed the distinction between kʰupa and pus. A strong generalization in the Northern Dialect, which this dialogue is in, is that kʰupa means ‘for’ a noun, but pus means ‘for’ a verb’. What do you think, is mamuk-pish here a noun or a verb?
