"Shoreline"

On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 Dell Hymes <dhh4d at virginia.edu> writes:

>>Mahtlinnie (maht-lin-nie): Off shore; out at sea.  (Used
>>two ways: if in a boat it is then to keep off; if on
>>land it is to go toward the water.)

>>Mahtwillie (mah-twil-lie): In shore, shoreward, on land,
>>towards the interior (The opposite of mahtlinnie.)

>>Nauits (nau-its) Off shore; on the stream, the sea beach
>I can't speak to the usage of the people north of
>Seattle, but in Chinookan the words in question are like
>this <getting note pad and pencil>

>maL (where L represents a voiceless lateral fricative=3D=3Dit
>is a generic word for 'body of water' throughout
>Chinookan. =20

Would a "voiceless lateral fricative" be anything like placing the tongue
to pronounce an L and then pronouncing a WH past it?

>The preceding prefix makes a difference in Chinookan
>wi-maL is the Colubmia river (as distinct from other
>rivers) in Clackamas, Wasco, et
al. id-maL is 'ocean'.

<taking notes>

>The Jargon words are based on MaL-plus a suffix   -ni is
>directional 'toward'

<taking more notes>

>They don't have to do with 'shoreline' as such. They have
>to do with direction, orientation toward or away from the
>water in question.

Cool! <taking MORE notes>

>I'm not sure about the -w- in the second word, but the
>meaning of opposite must derive from another Chinookan
>directional suffx.  Perhaps only -li.

<shrug> Could be just the way Thomas spells it.

>nawit is 'direct', 'immediate' in Upper Chinook.  Perhaps
>in this context it could meant 'right' as in 'right at'.

As in "right at the water's edge".

Thank'ee kindly, Dell.

Lisa
lisapeppan at juno.com
http://www.escargot.com/lisap

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