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

[Jim Holton]

Interesting point with "stopilo" and "stewah."  I had thought that they
were common Jargon words but when I checked Gibbs, Shaw, and Thomas, I
see that they aren't.  I believed that I may have learned them from
Duane Pasco's book.  I'll check my other dictionaries this weekend to
see were they show up.

David Robertson wrote:
>
> 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
>
>  *VISIT the archives of the CHINOOK jargon and the SALISHAN & neighboring*
>                     <=== languages lists, on the Web! ===>
>            http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/salishan.html
>            http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/chinook.html