The best link of Spokane with CJ that I've yet found

[David Robertson]

Klahowyam,

Now, I don't know the author of this book yet, nor the date and publisher.
But as the local library was closing, I xeroxed a few pages of "The Yukon
overland:  Poor man's route to the gold fields."  (Jack London would've
agreed, and added "Fool's route!")

There are plenty of advertisements in the book for Spokane, Washington
businesses, billing the city as the launching point for the Klondyke.  I
believe the book was printed in Cincinnati by Editor Publishing in 1898
and the author was Frederic R. Marvin, if this is the same edition
referred to in the holdings list of the U. of Victoria CJ Project.

The book devotes about 30 pages to a discussion and vocabulary of the
Chinook Jargon.  Chapter X begins:  "An essential accomplishment in
traveling through the Northwest is a knowledge of the language of the
Indians....[T]here is a common medium of communication understood from the
Siskiyus to Klondyke, and so far as know, to the North Pole.  This is a
jargon called Chinook."  (Five pages of filler babble follow.)

The vocabulary is not terribly remarkable, but as with the run of the CJ
mill, each word list has its subtly interesting peculiarities.  Here are
some:

"berries"	--	O'lil-lies	(Note English plural -s)
"bread"		--	Piah sap-po-lil
"brother"	--	Kar-po		/(Note {ar} representing
"buy (to)"	--	Mar-kook	\ a long, stressed /a/ sound.)
"cook (to)"	--	Mam-ook cole	(!)
"die (to)"	--	Chah-co halo
"gun"		--	Suk wal-lal *or* gun (!)
"intoxicate"	--	Chah-co dlunk
"kill"		--	Chuck-ken	(!)

Helpfully, CJ words not only for "gold" but also for "quartz" (chick-a-min
ko-pa stone) are given.  Spelling errors abound, which I can't help but
suspect as evidence for a plagiarized list.  Then there are the amazing
gaps, as with "die" and "kill", where a perfectly basic and common CJ
word seems to be unknown to the compiler.  The substitution of chuck-ken
for the latter term, though, and sto-be-lo for "north" and steh-wah for
"south", lead me to believe that an Indian informant of Salishan
extraction may have been consulted.  More research is called for on this
point.

Cheers,
Dave


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