Ahoy from the M/V Tokitae!
Imagine my pleasure when my parking spot on the ferry was next to one of these signs:
M/V Tokitae (image credit: Instagram)
Washington State Ferries is keeping their Chinook Jargon tradition alive.
This is Southern Dialect CJ t’ukti ‘beautiful’.
𛰅𛱁𛰃𛱂 𛰙𛱁𛱆𛰅𛱁 𛰃𛱄𛰙𛰃𛱄𛰙?
qʰáta mayka tə́mtəm?
kata maika tumtum?
Que penses-tu?
What do you think?
And can you say it in Chinuk Wawa?


What us the northern dialect spelling of this word (for beautiful)?
The word’s not known in the North! That didn’t stop folks from taking it from books to name things like Toketic (lovely typo that crept in there) in BC. Northern Dialect says just “haiyas-tloosh” — literally “very good” — for ‘beautiful’.