[WAKASHAN] etymology of muwach (fwd)

[David Robertson]

Hello, kanawi siXs,

K!Imta ukuk chaku ixt c!Em-pipa khapa lamiyay ya-kEmtEks hayu lalang.
Following this is a note from an 'elder' linguist...

Lush pulakli!
Dave

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 15:56:06 -1000
From: Terry Thompson <thompson at hawaii.edu>
To: David Robertson <drobert at TINCAN.TINCAN.ORG>
Subject: Re: [WAKASHAN] etymology of muwach

	The Tillamook often used the Chinook Jargon term "mowitch." in
fact, we were given a package of frozen mowitch to cook! It was good.

On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, David Robertson wrote:

> Subject: [WAKASHAN] etymology of muwach [FWD from H. Kammler]
>
> Hi there,
>
> this is about a very common loanword in Chinook Jargon: muwach [muwac^].
>
> It is widely considered of Nootkan origin but, contrary to many frequent
> words, like c^'a?ak, it is not analysable. Furthermore, Barkley Sound speakers
> (Tsishaat and other variants), consider it a foreign lexeme (their preferred
> word is !aatus^) though they use muwac^, too.
>
> John Thomas in his unpublished "Introduction to Nitinaht ..." (UVic 1981)
> gives an analysis on p.193:
> bu            "burn"
> -(?)aac^   "groin, croch"  {(?) = movable glottal stop}
>
> (As no Nitinat morpheme lexicon is available, I don't know how the morphemes
> go together, i.e. how does [?] behave, why does  [aa] become short)
>
> This is supposed to refer to the mythical Son of Deer stealing fire and
> getting burned at the groin,  sounds a bit like folk etymology.
> The corresponding morphemes in Nuuchaahnulh proper would be
> m'u          "burn"  {m' = glottalized M}
> -(?)a:c^i    "at the groin" {a: = variable length}
>
> This would give m'u?aac^i, quite different from muwac^.
> One possible solution could be that buwac^ was borrowed into Nuuchaahnulh as
> muwac^ (regular change b > m). Via trade Nootkan it may have entered Chinook
> Jargon.
>
> (I confess I haven't looked at any neighboring language as a possible source,
> so maybe I'm totally off track.)
>
> Any comments on this?
>
>
> Henry
>
>
> *******************
> Henry Kammler
> Vvlkerkundemuseum der Stadt Frankfurt
> -- Ozeanien --
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> *******************
>