Fwd: Re: Two forms of Chinook Jargon

Wed Aug 2 12:44:50 UTC 2006

I forward the message received from Duane Pasco.
  Francisc

  Duane Pasco wrote:

  Francisc....... 
  Thank you for forwarding Dave Robertson's message an to me.
  I can't figure out how to communicate on the Chinook list, so I'm going to answer his email through you. I would appreciate it if you would post this for me.

  Dave........
  Thank you for the compliment. 
  I would like to answer your question about the use of Chinook jargon words in Nuchanutl and other gambling songs.
  I was given to understand years ago that "Tle-ko" actually meant "I recognize you", or "I acknowledge you" [for your payment, gift.] A lot of other tribes have started using it lately. I think largely because of the "Canoe Journeys" program that has been going on since the "Paddle to Seattle", which has become a vehicle for cultural exchange. I've heard a lot of people using that term on Canoe journeys in the last few years. I have never heard it being used by Jargon speakers years ago, when I was young and there were a lot of Jargon speakers, except by Nuchanutl people. 
  A lot of songs are being shared now and the words are often corrupted as the precise meanings of the words are not as important to the singers as the sound, the voices and phonetics being instruments. I'm not sure that it's not necessarily a new thing.
  The gambling songs from the Northwest Coast and the plateau area have their origins from all over the area just mentioned.
  Sometimes the words that are Jargon based as well as words that are from various tribes get corrupted, or at least bent a little. And not just gambling songs. Love songs and some dinner songs, "tashtai" in Diditaht get bent a little. 
  Since you're working in Dididaht, you're probably aware of the difference between that dialect of Nuchanutl and the northern villages like Clayaquot, Moachaht, etc.
  There is a tashtai from Dididaht that has to do with a huge canoe which was commisioned by some white guys in the late 1800's and carved out by Wyac by two guys from the the village. The way I heard the story is that the two carvers would work during the week and paddle back to the village on the week-end. Somebody made up this great song as a kind of pocking fun thing. The words are all in the Dididaht dialect and the last couple of verses go like this.........
  "Wai ya yeska, was baboika, was babáthlid. [pardon my spelling]
  "Baboika" is "Mamook" in Clayoquot and farther north and, of course in Chinook Jargon. "Babáthlid" means white men and is "Mamathlin" and "Mamaxneen" farther North.
  [Dididaht and Neah bay do that thing where "M's" and "N's" are switched to "B's" and "D's", the way that S'kallam is to Lashootsid.]
  Several years ago I was singing with Art Thompson from Diditaht. Several of us were invited to a potlatch given by Robert Davidson in Masset, on the Queen Charlotte Islands. Robert was going to adopt Joe David and give him a Haida name. Art, George David, Nathan Jackson, Loren White, Steve Brown and Myself were going to give Joe away. There is an old song from Dididaht that was reputed to be a Haida song. It is a very complex song with lots of words. No one knew what it meant. We were all learning it, because Art wanted to, as a good will gesture "give it back to the Haidas" so to speak. When we got up there and were practicing the song in Robert's dad's house, he asked  what it was we were singing and when Art replied that it was a Haida song, Robert's dad informed us that it was certainly not a Haida song. Art decided not to give it to them. 
  When it was apparent that it wasn't Haida, I paid more attention to the words and realized that it was Chinook Jargon, but so corrupted that it was beyond interpretation. This doesn't take away from the value of the song. 
  There is a universal slahal song in Chinook Jargon that you may have heard. It has a lot of chanting, but the words go like this..........
    " Halo maika nanitch, heya, halo maika nanitch heya
      Halo maika slahal, heya
      Halo maika tseepie alta, heya la heya heya etc, etc,.
  In other words.............
    "You can't see, heya. You can't see, heya
     Not your bones, heya
     Don't make a mistake now, heya la heya a heya etc. etc.

  I am not familiar with the term "k'uma". 
  I appologize for rambling. I think it's an affliction common to the elderly.
  Duane Pasco

    On Aug 1, 2006, at 8:26 AM, Francisc Czobor wrote:

    I received this message from Dave Robertson, but since it seems that it was intended to be sent to Duane Pasco and/or to the Chinook List, I suppose that I'm not wrong to forward it to the List.

  Dave Robertson wrote:

  Hear, hear.  Let me add my two cents.  It's great to have you join the 
list, Duane, because your materials have taught so many of our members.  
As things stand right now, your "Tenas Wawa" and "Klahowya" are just about 
the best readily available learning materials for Jargon.  Your personal 
experience with the language adds authority where almost all of us feel 
unsure about what's good Jargon and what's not.  Welcome!

--Dave R

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