Barneby re possible CJ loan / calque into BC English

[David Robertson]

Klahowya,

Barneby, W. Henry, "Life and labour in the far, far West".  London:
Cassell, 1884.

* page 131:  'Cowichan has a very "settled" appearance, it stands in a
pleasant valley which runs down to the "Salt Water", and it is nicely
backed up by mountains.'

Why does he put the phrase into quotation marks?  A calque (loan
translation) from Chinook Jargon?  Any earlier evidence?  The question is
made more opaque by the fact that one of course can already refer to salt
water in English.  Yet it's relatively rare to use this phrase as a common
label for the sea; one usually refers to salt water as to a substance, no,
and not a place?

Again, hmmm.

Best from
Dave


 *VISIT the archives of the CHINOOK jargon and the SALISHAN & neighboring*
		    <=== languages lists, on the Web! ===>
	   http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/salishan.html
	   http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/chinook.html