klahowya

[Mike Cleven]

At 11:34 PM 1/17/99 -0800, David Robertson wrote:
>Hi, Linda,
>
>Tony or Henry Zenk would know better, as would Dell Hymes or Michael
>Silverstein, but I do believe that "Klahowya" is a perfectly
>well-pedigreed Old Chinook term.
>
>In Grand Ronde pronunciation it's now La*XiyEm or LaXa*yEm.  (* marks
>stress on the preceding vowel.)
>
>By the way Barbara Harris and Andrea Giles mention a folksy version of
>where "klahowya" came from in their list of items in the Chinook Jargon
>Project up at U.Vic in BC.  "Clark, how are you?" referring to a Hudson's
>Bay Company factor.  There are other versions of this myth.

Phonetically, that would be correct, but the spelling would be "clerk"
(even in the US).  Sounds plausible - as much as for Mr. Pelton's
(Felton's?) sad tale and the ouai-ouai => huy-huy transformations.

Another point - the factor of a large post would have _had_ clerks, rather
than be one.  Factor was the top job in the post - part community leader,
business manager and chief fur trader; and might have been less commonly
addressed by natives than his clerks.....which adds a bit of weight to this
myth (which I hadn't heard before).

Thinking of Mr. Pelton/Felton - it would be interesting to try and dig up
his origins, huh?  i.e. where he came from, how he got lost in the wilds.....