Sign component in Jargon [fwd from K. Carlson]

[David D. Robertson]

Hi David, Keith here,

I suspect it is just gesturing or beckoning.  However, the neighbouring
lower Fraser Aboriginal people did have a sophisticated sign language
in place in the nineteenth century to allow them to communicate across
the roaring Fraser River.  Some Elders I work with remember their
parents or grandparents being rather fluent in a sophisticated sign
language that allowed people to communicate across the river detailed
information about fishing, but perhaps more interesting, I remember
reading in the archives about how the Sto:lo were able to use sign
language to communicate detailed information across the river on such
matters as "so and so has died, or so and so has had a child, or is
coming to visit, or wants so and so to come and visit etc..." or
something to that effect.  I'll try to remember the exact reference.  I
wrote it down, but it was a few years ago.

cheers
Keith

On Wednesday, December 10, 2003, at 06:40 PM, David D. Robertson wrote:

> Nope!  I might have put it unclearly earlier today, when I tried to say
> it's indeterminate whether a sign language was used, or just the first
> gestures that came into the writer's head.  And this is the first &
> only
> example of the word /sain/ or synonyms that I've found in KW.  (Just
> 1,000
> pages to go!)
>
> Anyone with a good knowledge of Kamloops-area historical sources should
> please come forth now...
>
> --Dave R.
>
> On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 16:00:33 -0800, hzenk at PDX.EDU wrote:
>
>>> naika SAIN iaka pus chako pi iaka chako,
>>> pi nsaika patlach ukuk kan ship kopa iaka.
>>
>>> I TOLD HIM IN SIGN LANGUAGE to come and he came,
>>> and we gave that can of ?chips to him.
>>
>> When I first read the Jargon (taking care not to look at the
> translation), I
>> took the first sentence to mean:  'I signed to him to come and he
>> came'.
>> Couldn't that just as well be a reference to the universal "language"
>> of
>> gesturing--extending one's hand and motioning for some one to come
>> over?
> Do
>> you have any other indications of this word being used by LeJeune with
>> reference to an actual sign LANGUAGE?  Henry
>>
Keith Thor Carlson, Ph.D.
History Department
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon Canada
306-966-5902
http://www.usask.ca/history/faculty_kcarlson.shtml