1919, BC: Hyas Kloshe Tanse (mistranslated)
Most people’s grasp of Chinook Jargon was pretty out of practice by 1919.
Here’s a typical event invitation using CJ, with typical mis-translations of it.
I’m also interested in the goofy spellings of some words: moskt ‘2’ and sinnamoskt ‘7’, as well as kwaist ‘9’.
And what the heck were these songs that are titled after BC place names? Surely there weren’t 18 original compositions played at this event!
Here’s the psychedelic scan I found of the article in question:
THE Native Sons of B.C. will hold
their Hyas Kloshe Tanse (big [actually: ‘Very Good Dance’]
dance) (Kopa Hee-hee) in Lester Court [‘for Fun’]
on Friday. April 25. Some of the
dances will be: Ikt (waltz) “Nanaimo”; [‘1’]
moskt (one step), “Qualicum;” klone [‘2’…’3’]
(fox trot); “Nanoose;” lakit (one step), [‘4’]
“Sechelt”; Kwinnum (waltz), “Sitka;” [‘5’]
Taghm (two step), “Haida;” Sinnamo- [‘6’…’7’]
skt (fox trot). “Matsqui;” Stotekin [‘8’]
(one step), “Quatsino;” Kwaist (waltz) [‘9]‘
“Clayoquot;” Tahtlelum (fox trot), [’10’]
“Squamish;” Tahtlelum-pee-ikt (one [’11’]
step), “Nootka;” Tatlelum pee-moskt [’12’]
(waltz) “Capllano”; Tatlelum-pee- [’13’]
klone (fox trot), “Chemainus:” Taht-
lelum-pee-Lakit (three step), “Comox;” [’14’]
Tahtlelum-pee-kwinnum (fox trot), [’15’]
“Skeena:” Tahtlelum-pee taghm (fox [’16’]
trot), “Naas;” Tahtlelum-pee-sinna- [’17’]
moskt (one step), “Chilkoot;” Taht-
lelum-pee-stotekin (waltz), “Massett.” [’18’]
— from the Vancouver (BC) Sun of April 20, 1919, page 9, column 3
