Why did Gibbs 1863 call ‘hazelnut’ a K’alapuyan word?
Why did George Gibbs say that the Chinook Jargon word for ‘hazelnut; nuts generally’ is K’alapuyan?
This is on page 27 of his 1863 dictionary:
Offhand, I can’t see any good linguistic reason for this etymology of taqwəla, which has a solid origin story in e.g. Kathlamet Chinookan tə́-qʷla ‘nuts’.
That root form -qʷla is known in the linguistic reference works that we usually consult about Chinookan languages.*
(Except Clatsop-Shoalwater Lower Chinookan, an unusual chance occurrence.)
But let’s have a look into K’alapuyan languages, in the impressive, actually gigantic, 4-volume dictionary by Paul McCartney Sr.
In it, there’s no entry for ‘nuts’ in general, which tells you something of cultural interest.
For ‘hazelnut, filbert’, the K’alapuyan root form is pʰgʷi.
That’s quite different.
Image credit: Native Plants PNW
Maybe George Gibbs concluded that the Chinuk Wawa word must be K’alapuyan simply because so many hazelnuts grow in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which is also traditional K’alapuyan territory.
From the above map, it would seem as if the Fort Vancouver portion of the lower Columbia River (Lower Chinookan land) is a hazelnut-less void. (Which matches with that lack of a word for it in Lower Chinookan that we noted. Aha!)
Gibbs had traversed large swaths of the greater Pacific Northwest, from NW California north through western Washington. He probably noticed hazelnut trees all over the place, except in that little pocket.
In addition, Gibbs had researched Lower Chinookan pretty seriously, publishing a dictionary of it, also in 1863 — which we haven’t always thought of consulting in previous work on the Jargon.
(*HIRE A LINGUIST … that’s me. I have hundreds of corrections and additions to the existing best dictionary.)
Well, lo and behold, Gibbs’s own Lower Chinookan dictionary does indeed contain this entry:
Hazel nuts, t’kab-e-lá-la
So…!
This changes things.
Now I certainly suspect Gibbs ignored his own evidence of ‘hazelnut’ being an actual Chinookan-sourced word, in order to associate it with the hazelnut territory par excellence, K’alapuya iliʔi.
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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