"Spuzzum" by Laforet & York: An excerpt

[David Robertson]

Lhush chxi-pulakli, shiks,

Ukuk ya chaku k'Imta, na tl'ap khapa ixt bUk lhas munk c'Em yaka Andrea
Laforet pi Annie Zixtkwu York, "Spuzzum".  (1998, UBC Press.)

p. 78:  "Spuzzum people, many of whom were bilingual in Nlaka'pamuxcin
[Thompson Salish] and Halkomelem [Fraser Salish], found themselves
suddenly at a linguistic disadvantage.

	[']Briesta had a little store too.  My dad could just remember.
He was two years old.  A man came to Briesta and asked for a candle but
called it 'culten'.  They didn't know what he wanted.  They brought
everything down from the shelves, till finally my father said 'candle'.
The Indians used the word culten for candle all the time.  In Indian a
culten is a deck of cards.

	[']Another old man wanted a pail, so he made all kinds of motions
with his hands to demonstrate using a pail.  Finally he told Briesta, 'I
want lhkap.'  He keeps on saying that.  He wants a pail.  But another one
was real smart.  An old man came in and said, 'I know the word in English..
It's lapot.'  Briesta says 'Holaporte means "hurry up," and I won't hyak
for nobody.'  The old man meant lapot.  The old chief used to like to go
to the store when he was little to watch the old people buying things.  A
woman, she washes some gold, and she says, 'I'm going over to Briesta to
get some soap.'  She didn't know the English word and said 'pashem' for
'washem'.  The old chief said, "That doesn't sound very good, what you're
saying.  I think you mean 'washem'.  He'd figured out she meant soap.

	[']And then they all learned to speak Chinook.  Ed Barry's
grandfather taught them.  They didn't have much trouble then.[']"

Priceless!
Dave




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