Lost ‘fingers’
Words for ‘finger’ differ, and vary in their reach, from dialect to dialect in Chinook Jargon. In the Northern Dialect, which is identified with British Columbia, there’s < fingir >, as it’s spelled in the “Chinuk Pipa” alphabet — I say fingga.
Image credit: untappd
For the same set of digits, in the same dialect we can say lima. That of course is the word in all dialects for a ‘hand’. (From Métis/Canadian French la main.) Only in the Northern Dialect does its range of meaning seem to touch on ‘finger’.
That same word gets extended to refer to an ‘arm’ in both dialects we’re talking about, as well!
In the Southern Dialect, identified with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in Oregon, there’s a different word: letowa, known not from elder speakers but from early written documentation. (It’s from Métis/Canadian French le doigt.)
Maybe by the time the elder consultants were asked, they might’ve used lima for ‘finger’ as in the North?
I find it fascinating that both the Northern & Southern dialects of Chinuk Wawa seem as if they “lost” the original word for ‘finger’. Apparently not a big meaty subject of conversation!
Thoughts?
Bonus fact:
On the theme of “missing digits”, it’s fitting that I’ve previously written about how the Northern Dialect replaced most of the older (Central & Southern Dialect) number words above 5 with English ones! 🙌
