Iskum = “to use” something for a purpose…and…

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This post is a followup to one from 2021.

To answer an eternally vexed question, iskum = ‘to use’ something for a purpose, I’ve concluded. Makes sense…

Well, that’s a bit excessive! How about just talking Jargon grammatically? 😁 (Image credit: Page One Power)

I’m always teaching people that iskum is ‘to get’ something on purpose — as opposed to tl’ap, ‘to get’ something by accident. So it’s as if we’re saying in Jargon, ‘to pick something up’ for a purpose.

Let’s hunt up a couple examples of “purposeful” use for you to really see what I’m talking about:

  • Lipott, spoon, pi ikta tilihum iskum poos makmak…
    ‘Pots, spoons, and the things people use for eating…’ (KW #141:134)
  • Okok powder tlaska iskum poos mamook-p’oo okok haiyas musket…
    ‘The powder they use to fire this cannon…’ (KW #165:85)
  • Kanawei-tilihum iskum peipa pi pensils…
    ‘Everyone took up paper and pencils (to use)…’ (KW #112:4)

Now, the FIRST wrinkle!

A contrast I need to make for you is, just plain ‘using’ something without stating the purpose is good old mamook(-). (The causative prefix, which fundamentally means ‘to make; to do; to treat as’.)

Notice:

  1. This is not *mamook kanamokwst…* (‘work with…‘), as the preposition kanamokwst… (‘along with; together with’) carries a strong whiff of humanness and animacy — so much so that, as a noun, kanamokwst in the Northern dialect means ‘a companion; partner; buddy’! 
  2. Need I say, “purposeless” use is not using by accident. So we don’t use tl’ap here.

Examples of “purposeless” use:

Of indefinite / generic objects:

  • Tloosh tlaska kumtuks mamook(-) laplash pi –shikmin, pi –pipa, pi –ilihi…
    ‘They should know how to use lumber and metal, and paper, and land…’
    (Kamloops Wawa #62, page 15)
  • Heilo-tlaksta mamook(-) whip.
    ‘Nobody could use a whip.
    (KW #83:99)

Of definite objects:

  • …weik na maika mamook(-) okok lametzeen?
    ‘…aren’t you going to use that medicine? (KW #132:138)
  • Antona wawa poos tlaska mamook(-) okok pinchers kopa Potitus yaka latett.
    ‘Antoninus told them to use those pinchers on Potitus’s head.’ (KW #164:71)

And, SECOND wrinkle!

We’ve also seen one or two occurrences of the English loanword use (yoos) in the Northern dialect, in the “Chinook Book of Devotions throughout the Year“. (Thanks to Alex Code for reminding me of it.)

This would fit the powerful pattern where a new word from English having a more specific meaning for a concept got taken in to replace an older, more generic word.

Summary:

It’s been hard to decide how to say ‘use’, in my experience as a revitalizer of the language.

There are no dictionaries that tell you a translation for it, except for the Grand Ronde dictionary and the “Reference Lexicon”, which tell you to say munk/mamuk, but give no guiding examples.

But by paying attention while reading enormous amounts of data, I think we’ve settled this.

𛰅𛱁‌𛰃𛱂 𛰙𛱁𛱆‌𛰅𛱁 𛰃𛱄𛰙‌𛰃𛱄𛰙? qʰáta mayka tə́mtəm? kata maika tumtum?  Qu’en penses-tu?  What do you think?
And can you say it in Chinuk Wawa?

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