Ma-iskEm ukuk,pus ma-nanich "Las-kEmtEks kanawi-Ikta"Las-buk! -Reply

[Jeffrey Kopp]

On Tue, 9 Feb 1999 15:49:56 -0800, Tony wrote:

>This shift occured because when pressures from non-Indians increased on
>the Lower Columbia river our people moved north to Willapa bay .  Many
>of us were related to the Willapa band of Chinook there and in fact my
>family often wintered there.  When we moved to the bay, more or less
>permanently, it had been heavily depopulated by disease.  Becasue of
>this, the Chehalis who had never been permanent residents of Willapa bay
>moved South into this territory also.  By the time that linguists began
>serious work in the area they mapped Chehalis as being the Native
>language of the Upper section of Willapa Bay.  In fact this is
>incorrect.  Lower Chehalis speakers acknowledged that the language was
>new to Willapa bay.  Because of our two groups living together, and the
>acknowledged dfficulty of Chinookan languages,  both Chehalis and
>Chinuk-wawa became the common languages, and the speakers of old Chinook
>simply quit using it.  Despite this, as I stated above these people
>still consider(ed) themselves to be ethnically Chinook.  Forgive this
>convoluted paragraph I'm writing quickly.

>Did I manage to muddy the waters?

Well, no, Tony, I think you explain fairly well what seemed an odd
occurrence, that is, the shift away from Chinookan by its native
speakers.  Due to dislocation and resulting need to communicate with
non-Chinookan speakers, Jargon and/or Chehalis came to be used in
Willapa Bay.  

I suspect there must have been other factors involved (one's first
language is a pretty strong attachment), so I doubt that Chinookan
speakers simply "quit using it" simply  as a matter of convenience.
But the principal need to share a common tongue probably combined
with several other circumstances related to the move to a new home
(the population reduction and resulting disruption in family and
social structure, or the social dynamic in the newly shared home
territory) to result in the change of preferred language.

Regards,

Jeff