Jargon in Sechelt

[David Robertson]

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On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Mike Cleven wrote:





> assertion that their language is unrelated to any other (which is strange,
> since my Squamish acquaintances maintain that their own language is "almost
> the same").

....Almost as similar as two Salishan languages can be to each other, in
fact.....






> Klaya-klaya-klye - "always smiling"; seems to be from the Jargon "klee" -
> smile, glad, happy.  Name of a tribal heroine.
.....I'm unfamiliar with that term in CJ.....
>
> Moose-moose-shah-lah-klahsh - "sea cow", or "cow from the waters"; not a
> manatee, but some kind of sea serpent covered in fur, with forelimbs.
> Lives in a cave on Narrows Arm; only comes out at night.
.....Almost certainly the moose-moose part of this comes from CJ, which
makes very interesting the name of this creature.  Most such had native
names, or at the very farthest stretch, borrowed names from neighboring
indigenous languages around the Coast.....



> Kwuhn-ayss - "white whale".  Sechelt myth has several tales featuring white
.....This CJ word may easily have come from Salishan, or at least from the
Puget Sound / Juan de Fuca area (because it turns up in CJ also in a form
having "d" instead of "n").....

>
> Kuhl-ah-khan - "fort".  Sechelts had numerous fortified encampments,
.....As with moose-moose, this is nearly certain to be CJ.....

>
> Peterson also mentions the Jargon, and gives a source for a certain word I
> hadn't noticed before - "shelikum" for a mirror as an English borrowing
.....Another entertaining folk-etymology.  The word is from a NW
indigenous language, dollars to donuts.....