Chilcotin CJ-English mix, from another source

[David Robertson]

This is getting interesting.  I've just stumbled across a book some of you 
must already be familiar with.  It's "Many Trails" by the well-known, and 
enjoyable, Canadian writer R.D. Symons.  It was published in 1963 by 
Longmans Canada Ltd.  This book has been mentioned a few years ago on the 
CHINOOK list, but in a totally different connection.  

Today is the first time I've read it, and I find Chapter 7 is devoted to 
the Chilcotin Indian neighbours of Symons.  The time is unspecified, but 
may be the 1920s or 30s.  Like 1890s sources I've recently mentioned, 
Symons has the Chilcotins speaking a unique blend of Jargon and English...

..And it's not just any English, but a variety that shares much in common 
with pidgin Englishes of the Pacific and elsewhere.  Just as I've found 
among English loans in the Salish shorthand writers' Jargon, the Chilcotins 
appear saying "stop" as a possessive (and other?) copula.  They 
say "bymbye" / by-and-by.  Their way of expressing knowing is "savvy".  The 
infamous suffix "-um" is on some verbs.  

The English part of the Chilcotins' speech participates in fascinating 
expressions I've not found elsewhere, which Symons points out and explains 
at some length.  For example, he makes sure the reader knows the difference 
between "cultus coulee" (traveling aimlessly) and "go klatawa" (traveling 
to a particular place).  

Here is a sample of remembered speech as written by Symons:  

"One tam...me see um that Ankiti Siwash -- my hyu scare -- all he dlaid hyu 
(extremely) tall -- he helo shirt his back; he helo mocassin his feet; helo 
hat his head stop -- just plenty hair like bush.  Me no savvy see-um that 
fellow before -- me hyu cumtux (guess) him Ankiti Siwash!  Me go way that 
place all same cultus coulee."  

(Here 'Ankiti Siwash' is said to mean the 'stick Indians', apparently 
plural; note 'dlaid' = 'delate' / 'dret' for 'really'.)  

Just a few quick observations, if I may...

* Symons had not spent time in the Pacific, as far as I know, having 
immigrated to western Canada from Britain circa 1914 and worked steadily in 
ranching.  

** He had a good ear for the way various groups of people around him 
spoke.  In his books he quotes quite a bit of Cree, French and cowboy 
Spanish as he heard it, for example, and he also makes many specific 
identifications of people's accents.  

*** The similarity of Symons' Chilcotin CJ-English mix to specimens 
recorded decades earlier in other sources suggests a fairly stable local 
variety.  (I have a hard time calling it either CJ or English, at first 
blush.)  

**** Symons' spellings of CJ are really idiosyncratic, so I don't get the 
impression he was copying bits o' Jargon out of a dictionary for some 
journalistic colour.  

There's more research to be done on this subject.  For now I've got a 
hypothesis (why not) that the Chilcotin region's very early prominence as 
an interior BC contact zone led to early introduction of Jargon, plus heavy 
exposure to colloquial and foreigner-talk English.  Since the Chilcotin 
held onto its reputation of 'wildness' for a long time, standard English 
may not have made serious inroads until after Symons' time there.  

Cheers, 

--Dave R

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