“Kaltash wawa” is one of the oldest known Chinook Jargon phrases
Noted from the early 1810’s at Fort Astoria, kʰə́ltəs wáwa is among the handful of multi-word phrases in Chinuk Wawa that we know from the earliest documents.
Alexander Ross 1849:325 wrote this expression as kaltash wa-wa and defined it as ‘idle talk’.
In the Northern Dialect, we spell this Adjective + Noun phrase as kultus wawa.
Another Alexander, Alex Code, also spells it in Chinook-Peipa alphabet for the name of his excellent website Kaltash Wawa:
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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