Record-setting “per” phrase :)
Long story short: where X and Y are common nouns, “n X (kopa) n Y” = “n number of things X per n number of things Y” in Chinook Jargon.
Oh, yeah, mutatis mutandis.
Got it?
Short story long: I think I’ve found the record-setting extension of that distributive pattern.
The crudely redacted evidence, fit for government work.
Pus makmak, iht pawnd iht son kopa iht
‘To eat, there was a pound per day per’man kopa iht mun.
‘person per month.’
— Kamloops Wawa #198 (September 1901), page 83, column 2
This goes way beyond the original two-term syllogism, a word I like to throw around without understanding it, to 4 terms. So I guess we have X, Y, Z, and back around to A, here.
Bonus fact:
In the quotation above, we also have a rare occurrence of pus meaning ‘for (the purpose of)’ at the start of a sentence. This is because ‘to eat’ is highly focal in this instance. Normally, purposes are not focal, and so they usually get stated after the thing or action that has a purpose.
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?
