Lillooet eymology

[Mike Cleven]

At 10:09 AM 3/10/99 -0800, Nadja Adolf wrote:
>
>> the trail" or "wild onions".
>>
>> Well, in the main form(s) of the Jargon, "wild onions" are "ululach",
>> which
>> can sort of be contorted/simplified into "lillooet", unless it's a local
>> St'at'imcets word or a local take on the Jargon word.  As for "end of the
>> trail", I can kind of see the "wayhut", "ooahut" on the end there -
>> especially allowing for deformations of the Jargon - but I'm not sure what
>> the "lill-" part of it would be.  There's one possibility that occurred to
>> me - some kind of wagoneer's/teamster's call for "lolo wayhut" - "haul the
>> road", perhaps implying "load up" or even "turn".  Such a phrase might
>> have
>> been a common call on the busy "Golden Mile" of Lillooet's wagon-train
>> staging grounds.....a reference to the "end of the trail" leading up the
>> canyon and over Pavilion Mountain into the Cariboo.
>	[Nadja Adolf]
>	How about illaheeooahut?

Too complicated for whiteman lalang; it was of white coinage, at least
insofar as the naming of today's Lillooet goes.  Someone else here quoted a
critique of Teit, indicating his attribution of the meaning of Lil'wat as
"end of the trail" was faulty and that the term is untranslateable.  Teit
probably saw the "'wat" ending and associated it with the well-known Jargon
word wayhut/ooahut.

Mike Cleven
ironmtn at bigfoot.com
http://members.home.net/ironmtn/

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