Scandal: Tlingit man found sleeping in a Haida bed.

[Larry Sheldon]

On 3/12/2012 6:34 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> Speaking of _tl_>  _cl_, W:pedia says that _Tlingit_ is pronounced as
> though spelled "Clingit" in English. I was caught off guard. I've
> never heard this word spoken, but I have no problem using the spelling
> pronunciation. Anyone who's passed articulatory phonetics 101 ought to
> be able to reproduce the voiceless L used in the native pronunciation.
> And, given that the English spelling is, no doubt, the invention of
> English-speakers, why wasn't the word spelled "Clingit" / "Klingit,"
> to begin with?
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> The Romance development is a consequence of *hearing* the word, not of
> reading it.

We have traveled to Southeast (Alaska) several times, and given that I
am not a linguist and given that most of the people I met are tourist
guides and such, I came away believing that I was hearing a hint of the
"T", some faint "ch" and a lot of "l" in the word Tlingit's front end,
and the "g" sounded a lot like "k"--enough that I have trouble spelling
it correctly.

I wonder if the strange-to-our-eyes spelling might be due to the first
records being kept by semi-literate Russians, instead of the
semi-literate Spaniards we are used-to farther south.

And I wonder if the "ngit" syllable is related to the Cahuilla "nga"
(Tujunga, Cahuenga, Cucamngo) which I am led to believe means "place of"
or "village of".

I don't know what there ranges were, but I think the Russians came down
into Cahuilla territory.

Or maybe I imagined it all--it was a long time ago.

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