Loanwords in Karuk (NW California)

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None are from Chinuk Wawa, but all tell us interesting stuff about Pacific NW language contact!

The late great linguist William Bright, alongside Susan Gehr, created a “Karuk Dictionary” that’s now online.

A wonderful feature of it is that you can toggle a search for “Semantic Domain: loanwords“, and see what kind of stuff this Northwest California Indigenous language isolate has historically borrowed from other languages.

I’m fascinated that there are no Chinook Jargon loans shown here, and no Spanish, although both of those languages had some historical presence in Karuk lands. 

What we do find are plenty of words taken straight from spoken English, and many of them are the same words that English donated to Chinook Jargon in the frontier era. (As opposed to the earliest CJ times, when other English words were more prominent.) 

Consequently, most of these are also loaned into a large number of other PNW languages.

Let’s have a look!

  • afriich a man’s name, Fritz Hansen
  • áyan (flat) iron
  • ayukii hello! An Indigenous-origin word, but credited to Settler influence:
    “Note: In isolation, pronounced with falling-rising pitch on last syllable. Used when meeting a person, and also to address a distant person or place which is thought of nostalgically; e.g., eeee ayukíi chínih ‘Oh, hello (I’d like to see you), Jenny’ (JPH “Grammar” 358). The word is said to have been introduced by whites, who probably took it from Wiyot [Algic family, i.e. a distant relative of Cree, Ojibwe, etc.] ai-e-kwe, ai-o-kwe ‘friend’ (as given in Powers, p. 479).”
  • chach[-]hiram church
  • chiish cheese
  • chikin chicken
  • eekoons acorns
  • fish fish
  • foopich four bits, 75 cents
  • fúpich fifty cents
  • hama hammer
  • íish the “ace” or marked stick in the Indian gambling game
  • ishpuka[-]peen pan for panning gold
  • kâah car
  • kafih coffee
  • kampuuch boot(s), galoshes [gumboots]
  • kapah[-]raam a placename, site of a copper mine
  • keeks cake
  • kiih to lock a door [key]
  • kiih[-]ar / kih[-]ara– key
  • koon corn
  • maakich woman’s name [Margaret?]
  • makarúna macaroni
  • muraasish molasses
  • pay pie
  • pápah pepper
  • parih a woman’s name, Polly
  • peen pan
  • peenvárih a man’s name, from English ‘Ben Wilder‘
  • péetpaak bedbug
  • pichas peaches
  • piich bead(s), European or Indian
  • piin pin
  • piins beans
  • piinsh[-]ur bean(s)
  • pikchah to take a picture of, to photograph
  • pikchah / pikchah[-]a– picture, photograph
  • poos boss
  • prâms plum(s)
  • putiruh potato
  • puuch boot(s)
  • rapat Robert
  • rishipit Indian name of Mrs. Elizabeth Hickox
  • saamfasiskuu San Francisco
  • sahvurumsuusih woman’s name, Sarvorum Susie (Mamie Offield’s mother)
  • sararih Saturday
  • siksipich six bits, 75 cents
  • síkspich seventy-five cents
  • suuchakrakas soda crackers
  • súuchas soldier

tákta ‘doctor,’ i.e. a shaman
thikim sic ’em! (command to a dog)
tiih tea
tôon[-]ak town
tuméetus tomato(es)
tupich twenty-five cents
tuupich two bits, 25 cents
váanpit penny [one bit!]
vaantara [one] dollar
várama watermelon
váyat Wiyot
vêekin wagon
vínika vinegar

ikta mayka chaku-kəmtəks?
Ikta maika chako-kumtuks?
What have you learned?
And can you say it in Jargon?

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