Comment on dimes and dozens in CJ literature research

[Henry Kammler]

>
> *page 95:  'The word "Chang" is as near as the Siwash can come to "Chink"
> by which name all Chinamen go out here, and "Chang" he has become to us
> all.'  [This is news to linguists!  I've often heard of the difficulty
> Native peoples had with the "ng" sound of English.  "Ch", "i", "n" and
> "k", however, could be easily approximated by speakers of any Vancouver
> Island language.]

Indeed, this is interesting. Actually, Nuuchaa'nulh has the "ng"-sound but
*only* in song words (because of the voiced quality of this nasal sound, the
"ng" can even bear the melody). I.e. in spoken language it does not occur. The
sequence [nk] is always heard as a separate [n] and [k]. Vancouver [vängku:vr]
thus becomes "Peen-kuupa" [pe:nku:pa]. This separation can even sound like an
extra vowel, thus "ink" (=fire) sounds a bit like [?inik]. The commercial
activity of fishing is expressed by a loanword: pishin (from "fishing"). Also
in "Indian" English the final "g" of "-ing" is consistently absent.

> *page 118:  'Of Siwash I understand practically none....' [I have no
> further questions, your honor.]
>
>
> But for goodness' sakes, it's disappointing to find a book documenting the
> usage of material from CJ, only to see that the author apparently knew
> nothing at all of Chinook Jargon.  He simply harps on this single word,
> showing no curiosity or understanding for the nonwhites surrounding him.

This is disappointing, of course, but not too different from some of our
contemporaries' attitudes. Not only once did I hear the reaction "oh, they do
have a language of their own?" from non-native neighbors (and not all of them
chichaku!) when talking about a nearby reserve or Friendship Centre. And it's
not surprising to see the Reform Party having quite a bit of a following in
those rural towns...
Oh, am I getting too political?

Henry (the other one)