1894: “scotty cooley” on the lower Fraser
Today’s note adds to my article of 2015.
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tə́qsin ‘follow; pursue’ from Lower Chehalis Salish
Chinuk Wawa tə́qsin ‘follow; pursue’ in the 2012 Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary: “Of obscure origin. Possibly from a local Salishan form with the transitive suffix -n.”
1870s: Ling Fu proves he’s American by talking Jargon
Be a good citizen, read “Voices of the Pacific Northwest“.
1840s?: Willamette Natives bargain over Christianity
A great quotation from the old CHINOOK Listserv…
1878: An addendum to “Exploring the Olympic Mountains”
A reasonably clear record of míməlust-íliʔi (‘dead.people-place’) for ‘graveyard; cemetery’ turns up in a half-translated form.
1877: Chinuk Wawa etc. on the Little Bighorn battlefield, from a Nez Perce
Hugh Lenox Scott (1853-1934) was seen as an authority on Plains Indian Sign Language…
Chinuk Wawa təmstiyu, from Salish with Métis + Chinookan input
The Chinuk Wawa noun təmstiyu ‘arrowwood’ has stuck in my mind for quite a while, as have many others that “feel” Salish to me.
1930: Williams, “Logger-Talk”
Another in my sporadic series of gems from the old CHINOOK listserv that deserve more attention:
1886: Held for Passing Counterfeit Money
LATE-FRONTIER OREGON PAPER SKIPS TRANSLATING. —
Borrowed numbers, and linguistic archaeology
Numerals do get borrowed from language to language. Famously (among Pacific NW linguists) the word for ‘4’ is essentially the same across the Salish, Chimakuan, and Wakashan language families.