Indian CJ pronunciation sources and a few words

[Duane Pasco]

George.......
	Please allow me to apologize. I have long since gotten over my  
enitial reaction to the comment. Also I was probably taking your  
comment out of context. I don't even recall how it went and it  
doesn't matter now.
	When I was growing up I never heard anyone, Native, or otherwise  
refer to Chinook Jargon as "Wawa", but rather simply "Chinook", until  
this recent interest in the phenomenon. If you ask someone wether  
they speak Chinook Jargon and you say "Maika wawa Wawa?", it's a  
little weird. Also, most folks called a year "year", or "yeah". Once  
in while someone might "cole laly". Happy new year = "kloshe chee  
cole laly". Actually, I never heard anyone wish someone a happy new  
year in Chinook, but if they had, I would presume it would have been  
something like that.
	Sometime in the 1980's when I was contemplating publishing a Chinook  
dictionary, I had mentioned it to an elder of the Okanogan tribe who  
spoke Chinook jargon. His comment like the famous Mr. Mcleod of  
Ketchikan about the same time was "How you gonna spell it.?"
	My answer to both of them was that I felt it didn't matter, and that  
I could spell it with Hiragana, or the "Captain Marvel code", or  
whatever, as long as I was consistent and I let everyone know what  
the symbols meant.
	Their question got me curious and I began looking at earlier  
attempts at dictionaries. I'm sure you have done the same. What a  
diversity.
	It reminds me of when I was hired to teach at the K'san project in  
Hazelton B.C. in 1969. I wanted to learn as much Gitk'san language as  
I could. I told Bill Holm that I was going to try and record as much  
vocabulary as I was able. He asked me [you guessed it] "How are you  
going to spell it"?
	I gave him the same answer I gave the other two fellows. Bill  
suggested I pick up a copy of a book entitled "Learning an Unwritten  
Language". I did, but found it a little academic for my purposes. I  
had been reading a lot of Barbeau and I decided to use his phonetic  
system, which is fine if you are familiar with the fact that he is  
French. I used his system for about a month and then changed to  
something that made more sense to me. I learned a lot during my  
fourteen month stay there.
	I'm rambling. Sorry.
	Anyway, I find your spelling interesting and very different from  
mine, but I understand anyway, illustrating my point. For the Chinook  
stuff, I decided to go with something very similar to that of George  
Gibbs, who's dictionary I consider to be the best and the one that  
probably influenced Chinook Jargon speakers from  the time of it's  
publication in 1863 on. Most of the subsequent dictionaries have been  
plagiarizing of his work, in my humble opinion.
	It's a sad fact that since 1960, I haven't found more than a half  
dozen people that spoke Chinook Jargon well, ones that learned as  
children and not from a book. I think that WWII had a great effect on  
it's demise.  I'm losing it myself now with no one to speak it with,  
I mean real conversations, not just a few words here and there.
	It was great while it lasted.
	Thanks for contacting me and I consider it a compliment that you  
were a subscriber for as long as "Tenas Wawa lasted. I've been toying  
with the idea of starting it up again, but if I did, I would drop the  
"Tonto" talk and transcribe it in real English.
	I would like to meet you some time and engage in a little chit chat.
	Yours in friendship, Duane Pasco

On Dec 26, 2007, at 6:58 PM, George Lang wrote:

> Klahayêm,
>
> I haven't been following the List for a while, but I did recently  
> stumble on the message below.
>
> Just for the record, I, the presumed culprit, Lang from Toronto,  
> certainly meant no offense when
> using the word "amateur."  In fact I am myself an amateur in many  
> senses of the word, when it comes
> to Wawa in particular.
>
> Hayu ankati.  And, for the record, I had a running subscription to  
> Tenas Wawa for as long as it lasted,
> often quoting it to people as an example of what could be done with  
> Wawa.
>
> Klush chiy ikt kol!
>
> George
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond  
> privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!