Chaku-hilu could be an old traditional Indigenous expression
Image credit: Free Salmon on FB
#IndigenousMetaphors
In the Kathlamet Chinookan language, the upstream neighbor of (Clatsop/Shoalwater etc.) Lower Chinookan, “Why did those salmon disappear?” in a story is put as:
qáčqi k’á igúxwax gí tgúnat?
literally ‘Why nothing-became those salmon?’
Here, ‘disappear’ is conveying that these fishes ‘ran out’, ‘became no more’.
This is essentially the identical way such a thing is said in Chinuk Wawa — we would say pus-íkta chaku-hílu uk sámən? (Or in the Northern Dialect: Ikta-mamook chako-heilo okok samon?)
The differences in syntax are insignificant.
By this I mean that the Kathlamet k’á + igúxwax (nothing-became) is a single inseparable unit just as the Chinook Jargon chaku-hílu (became-nothing) is.
The parallel is very striking.
I’m in favor of adding this to our incredibly long list of old Indigenous metaphors (that’s a link to about 60 of them; I need to write a scholarly article on this) that are preserved in the Jargon.
Such Chinookan expressions, “X+become” as well as “X+do”, routinely match up on a better-than-chance basis with CJ structures that merely use the reverse word order because that’s how the Jargon is structured.
(Proof-wise, it behooves us to additionally investigate whether the other major parent languages of the Jargon {Lower Chehalis Salish, Métis/Canadian French, and regular folks’ English} use such a structure to express the same idea in each case.)
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…
Contact me for the Zoom link.
