Chinook Jargon in the wild: The Sahali Tribe
Living in Washington state as I do, it’s always exciting to me when I encounter folks who know a word of Chinuk Wawa.
That’s something I like to share in this space.
Another way to spell it, and to mix languages! (Image credit: South Sa-Hali Elementary School)
The other day I was doing a puzzle in the newspaper that asked for a couple of US tribe names.
The friend I was sitting with volunteered a guess: what I’ll spell as the Sahali [səháli] Tribe.
This made me very happy.
That’s not the name of any tribe that I’ve heard of in my research, but it’s the Chinook Jargon word for ‘above; upper; tall; high’ and so on.
The pronunciation is a spelling pronunciation that my friend (or whoever told it to them) logically inferred from one or another of the English-oriented spellings that you find out there.
It could easily have been influenced by actual tribal and language names in our state, such as Chehalis and Sahaptin.
Within the Jargon we pronounce it [sáx̣ali].
It’s relevant to tell you my friend’s whole life has been spent here in Washington.
