Spotted in the wild: Chumstick Highway, WA
Something you’ll see…
As you drive through Leavenworth, Washington on your way to further Chinook Jargon adventures…
is “Chumstick“!
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?
Hey! Teach Yourself northern-dialect Chinook Jargon!
And join free Zoom sessions…currently Sundays @ 9AM!
Contact me for the Zoom link.
Adding a note: I always took “Chumstick” as ‘pencil’, i.e. a noun+noun compound of t’sə́m+stík, ‘marking stick’.
However, William Bright’s excellent book “Native American Placenames of the United States”, page 109, has it meaning a ‘marked tree’, thus an adjective+noun phrase. That works equally well, grammatically, and way better, in terms of meaning.
I wonder if his friend the late great linguist M. Dale Kinkade, who was from nearby Entiat, Washington, had told Bright of this meaning. (No source is cited.)
Robert Hitchman’s book “Place Names of Washington” (1985:48) connects the name with the fact that you can follow a number of pioneer trails in the area from the blazed trees found there.