Grand Ronde spellings and others for CJ

[David Robertson]

Klahaw.iam, tilikom,

That's yet another way to write Chinook Jargon.  It's how I've found
myself transcribing "Kamlups Wawa".  More on that in a second, eh?

I'm replying to your question, Linda, because I don't know if anyone else
has yet.  I'll tell you what I've seen on our list.  The last one in this
list is the "right way" to write Chinook.

1.  Tony Johnson's email version of a scientific linguistic writing system
for CJ.  This would make my greeting above look like "LaXiyEm, tIlXEm".

2.  The shall we say traditional way used in those scads of popular books
on the Jargon published a hundred years ago, give or take 40 years.  The
above is spelled something like "Klahowya, tillicums" in this system.

3.  Writing done by people who grew up hearing the Jargon, such as my
Makah friend's beautiful songs.  He might write "Tlakooyea, tillikum".
(I'm just guessing, though!)

4a.  My own crazy way is to simplify Tony's system further, so instead of
using the letter "c" for a "ts" sound, I use "ts".  (Hey, the language
already has both a "t" and an "s", so I'll get more use from them.)  Of
course I've never thought to *explain* how my system works!  I'd usually
write the greeting above as "lhaxayEm, tilxEm" or "lhaxiyEm, tilxEm".
But there's also:

4b.  The "Kamloops Wawa"/ "Kamlups Wawa" newspaper in the Jargon, written
in shorthand, is something I'm extensively studying.  So sometimes I write
things the way I find them there, only I use one letter of our alphabet
for each letter of the shorthand.  That's how I greeted you at the top of
this crazy message.

5.  All of the above, and every other way you've found to write Chinook
Jargon, are correct.  Right?

Cheer,
Dave
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