From the southern Columbia Plateau (fwd) -Reply

[phil cash cash]

and more on nez perce: sooyáapoo n. white man, white Americans

this word may be a good example of language contact where the lexical
borowing of a word occurs more so than its actual phonological form.  it
seems the meaning of "hat" has diffused intact across the c. plateau but
the particular dialectical variation or local speech patterns has given the
word its unique phonological form as well.  

my thought was that the word for "hat" and its adaption to mean "whites,
white people" was originally influenced by the use of the indigenous sign
language and that the wide spread occurence of the meaning "hat" was
promoted this way via>french>chinook jargon>interior salish>sahaptin>nez
perce with french and CJ being the critical link.  i base this partly on
the notion that indigenous sign language may have had wider distribution
than CJ, but this may not be known since little documentation exists
(unlike cj) of the use of sign language in the c. plateau or coastal areas.  

for additional cit. see (ref: Clark, The Indian Sign Language).  his sign
description is given as:

--hold right hand, back up and to right, in front of, close to, and a
little to left of face, index finger extended pointing to left, others and
thumbs closed; draw the hand to right, index finger passing horizontally in
front, close to, and opposite eyes (p.402).

ne'é (nez perce: isn't it? or perhaps it too is derived from French
n'est-ce pa?)

phil cash cash
cayuse/nez perce


>Kanawi-Laksta,
>
>I believe I have brought this up before...Our Jargon pronunciation for
>"hat" is 'shiyapuL.'  We attribute it to Lower Chinook.  I have always
>related  my upriver friends (and enemies) pronunciation of 'shiyapu' to
>be a version of this.  I have heard this glossed as both "hat" and
>"white hat," and it is always attributed to the fact that the first
>"whites" seen wore hats or white hats.
>
>LaXayEm--Tony A. Johnson
>Grand Ronde, OR
>
>