Muir, John re Alaska Chinook Jargon

[David Robertson]

Muir, John, "Travels in Alaska".  Available online at
http://www.sierraclub.org/John_Muir etc etc.  Has any of you Jargon
website managers put in a link to this one?

'Glossary of words in the Chinook Jargon', with my notes:

Boston:		English [the language, presumably; also generic term for
		'white person'?  Read on.]
Chuck:		Water, stream
Deliat:		Very, or very good [i.e. <delate>]
Friday:		Shoreward [(!) OK, let the etymologizing begin...]
Hi yu:		A great quantity of, plenty of [see below]
Hootchenoo:	A native liquor.  See page 202 [Re this, see below]
Hyas:		Big, very
Klosh:		Good
Kumtux:		Know, understand
Mica:		You, your (singular)
Muck-a-muck:	Food
Poogh:		Shoot, shooting [see below]
Sagh-a-ya:	How do you do [from native pronunciation, LaXa(w)yE(m), of
		<klahowya(m)>]
Skookum:	Strong
Skookum-house:	Jail
Tillicum:	Friend
Tola:		Lead (verb) [i.e. <tolo>]
Tucktay:	Seaward [etymology?]
Tumtum:		Mind, heart
Wawa:		Talk (noun or verb)

Further notes:  From Ch. XIII, "Alaska Indians"

* '"The white man," said he, "makes great ships.  We, like children, can
only make canoes.  He makes his big ships go with the wind, and he also
makes them go with fire.  We chop down trees with stone axes; the Boston
man with iron axes..."'

* '...hootchenoo, a vile liquor distilled from a mash made of flour, dried
apples, sugar, and molasses, and drunk hot from the still.  The
manufacture of hootchenoo being illegal, and several of Toyatte's tribe
[of Tlingit, I believe] having been appointed deputy constables to prevent
it, they went to the Taku camp and destroyed as much of the liquor as they
could find.'

* '"It would not do for you to be exposed to bullets.  Go to your home in
the fort; pretty soon 'hi yu poogh'" (much shooting).'

Note that the above matches up with Hayne & West about the word for
illegally distilled liquor.  Muir considers it a Chinook Jargon word; H &
W don't mention its origin.  Hmmm.

Best wishes from
Dave



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