Jewitt etc

[Mike Cleven]

At 01:31 PM 1/15/99 +0100, Henry Kammler wrote:


<snip>
>As for European loanwords other than English and French in CJ one could
>consider the number of trade vessels that had contact with the First
>Nations. During the boom time of the maritime fur trade (1795 - ca.
>1803), only 8 Russian and 3 Portuguese ships made it to the West Coast
>of Vancouver Island, as opposed to about 200 American, 100 English and
>maybe 60 Spanish vessels.

Actually, the British and Spanish disappeared from the Coast from around
1796 onwards, leaving it almost entirely to the Americans.  The heyday of
the English fur trade was from 1788 to 1794.  Both of the imperial powers
withdrew their presence from the area in response to the needs of the
Napoleonic Wars back in Europe; the Spanish also withdrew because Monterey
had been decided upon as their principal base north of San Blas.


While the French voyageurs seemed to have
>quite an impact on intercultural communication inland, the scattered
>Russian and Portuguese ships and crew members probably made no big
>impression and had to use a trade language already established on the
>coast.

I suppose the difference is that the Voyageurs (themselves largely Metis
and therefore a great deal native in culture) lived among the native
peoples and did not remain segregated on-board ship.  IIRC the English
loan-words often displaced earlier French loan-words, and this seems to
have occurred after active settlement of the landscape began by
English-speakers.....the other group who lived among the natives from the
earliest time of the fur trade, however, were the Hawaiian employees of the
fur companies (and the occasional ship-jumper); yet the only Hawaiian word
in the Jargon is "kanaka"....

>A diffusion of Russian into CJ can only have happened via the Tlingit
>with whom the Russians had permanent contact. But Russian-Tlingit
>relations were rather cool if not hostile most of the time and the
>Tlingit only turned to the Russian Orthodox Church when the US takeover
>of Alaska put a much more serious threat to their souvreignty.

Yes - but descriptions of the Jargon always mention a Russian component;
without naming one.

They had fairly regular contact with the Haida as well; and their ships
traded with HBC posts for provisions......