1900, Lake Chelan: “nayka hilu wawa ukuk hayas-kʰəltəs wawa!” 😂😁🤣
Guess which dialect of Chinuk Wawa they were talking in north-central Washington at the Turn of the Century?
Guess which dialect of Chinuk Wawa they were talking in north-central Washington at the Turn of the Century?
Tune unknown, which may be a clue for us.
Clause-initial pus ikta, pus kata, and pus kah (synonymous with plain ikta, kata, and kah ‘what?, how?, where?’) in northern-dialect Chinook Jargon as spoken by Salish people is probably influenced by how their Indigenous languages work.
A search through my website indicates I haven’t yet verbalized the following observations:
Still more wonderful stuff from an eyewitness observer & speaker in BC!
Back when Alaskan newspapers existed only in California, someone was unfamiliar with the pronunciation of “Yakima” & with Chinuk Wawa.
Many thanks to David Gene Lewis PhD for his phenomenal research, presented over the years on his website, The Quartux Journal.
Today’s report is very data-heavy, so it will be valuable for research into the Canadian “residential schools”, and for genealogy.
Chinook Jargon is the only living descendant of “Nootka Jargon”.
The north-central Washington state Salish chief known as Moses (1829-1899) was obviously talking Chinuk Wawa at the “Indian Jubilee” of 1897.