question

[Liland Brajant ROS']

>>Has anyone heard of the term "Oiliqua Chick"?  This is repeated in a
>>letter from Alexander Hamilton to George Gibbs, 1856 and described >as
>a:
>>
>>commodity, shellfish, trade item, nearly 3 inches long could be the
>>largest, and exists in California and Washington Territory.
>>Hamilton seemed very anxious to get ahold of any that Gibbs could find.
>>
>>Is this Dentalia or some other well known shellfish?
>
>I'm quite sure I've run into it (as I recall, the spelling was more like
>"allekacheek"), though in which reference I *don't* recall.
>
>I believe it was a large dentalium (larger than coop-coop; whether too
>large to be hykwa, I don't know.  Again, distinctions of size etc. among
>such groups of terms are more likely in the creolized forms of the
>language than in the original pidgin; it seems to me likely that any
>given pidgin speaker would only know, or at least only use, one of the
>terms, and would qualify it with "hyas" "tenas" etc. as needed.
>
>lilend

--
Liland Brajant Ros' * UEA-D, Seatlo Usono * FD Baptismo, AA, US-lit-ro
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