Planning: The monolingual Chinook Jargon dictionary
…or “dictionaries”, of each dialect….
Image credit: Wikipedia
The monolingual Chinook Wawa learners’ dictionary that I want to create will naturally cross-reference between naturally related categories — e.g. with some pronouns:
- I reckon defining okok, in part, as {(iht tanas-wawa) poos k’ilapai-wawa kopa “ikta?”} (“(a certain word) to give an answer to “what?” “),
- and defining ikta? in Northern Dialect as {(iht tanas-wawa) poos ask “poos okok, poos okok?”} (“(a certain word) to ask whether it’s this or it’s that”).
(We may find ourselves using “iht tanas-wawa” so much that we abbreviate it as “i.t.w.“) 😊
In the same way, the Yes/No question particle na will be cross-referenced with the positive and negative interjections nawitka & heilo / weik.
These seem like reasonable, if laborious, solutions for explaining the meanings of abstract grammatical stuff.
In comparison, a lot of verbs may be easy to define —
e.g. mamook-mimaloos (“kill”) = mamook poos kopitt-ilii iht tilihum / iht ikta (“cause some person or thing to no longer be alive”)
(Again, we may find ourselves using a frequent abbreviation “i.t/i.i“!)
Nouns may mostly be even easier than that —
e.g. tloochmin = iht haiyas tilihum heilo man yaka (“a grown person who isn’t a man”) or some such.
I see huge value in a monolingual dictionary, for learning & teaching: it will keep people’s minds within the world of Chinook Jargon, not slipping into their first language as they work on new vocabulary.
I need something like this for sure. I have my Lane CC Dictionary, my GR Dictionary, and my class binder next to my desk at all times for me to reference. But it splits my thinking. These examples were great at keeping my brain in place and working on just the Wawa. And with the extent I want to utilize the language in future writings, I all the help I can get staying in the correct lingual mode, rather than trying to de-anglicize the structure of my Wawa all the time.
Kitty, naika wawa masi kopa maika tloosh wawa — thanks for your good words. It’s so valuable to hear from our community of speakers about the work to be done! And speaking for myself, it’s going to be so stimulating and fun to create a monolingual Chinuk Wawa dictionary.
Dave Robertson