From the southern Columbia Plateau

[David Robertson]

Lush pulakli ukuk, wigna?
(Kloshe polaklie okoke, wake-nah?)

>From Theodore Stern, "Chiefs & Change in the Oregon Country:  Indian
Relations at Fort Nez Perces, 1818-1855"  (volume 2)   Corvallis:  Oregon
State University Press, 1996.

page 334:  'They oppose the settlement in their country of any American,
by circulating rumors of hostile intentions on the part of certain
Indians, and thus alarm them, and in several instances where the claim has
been thus abandoned by our own people (or what they call Suyapp[o] or
Boston) it has been taken by Canadian Frenchman, old servants of the
Hudson Bay Company, without any opposition from the Indians.  Even now
among those Tribes with whom we are at war, Alima, which means any person
other than an american[,] may pass unmolested through their country; the
Father with his household who has resided for several yars at the Yakama
Mission still remains secure in the heart of the enemy's country'

page 391, note 24:  'Soyapo today [1996!] is Chinook jargon for "white
man", as is Boston for "American".  Alima, says Josephy (1965:  334, n.
3), originally meant "American", inconsistent with its use here.  Samuel
Black, in his trilingual vocabulary in Black 1829 (fo. 26) -- I cite only
the Nez Perce entries -- gives for "White People" Allay Man and for
"Americans" Shouiwapo.  Narcissa Whitman (Chapter 11, p. 97) uses Suiapus
for "Americans", consistent with Black's understanding.  Hale 1990, a
handbook of Chinook Jargon, lacks a general term for "White Man", while
for "American" he gives Boston.  A possible cognate for Alima is the
entry, "Other, another, different" Alloima, huloima, while for Soyapo, the
term often cited is "Hat, cap" Seahpo, seahpolt (fr. Fr. Chapeau), thus
"hat wearers".'

Dave's note:  You can tell a book that wasn't written by a linguist.

First, 'soyapo' is Nez Perce, and not part of any version of Chinook
Jargon I've learned of, though conceivably the Nez Perce used it when
speaking Chinook Jargon, and 'soyapo' was a bit of a pan-regional term
(having been adopted in the Salishan languages north of Nez Perce).

Next, 'alima' may be a variant representation of a Nez Perce word "allay
man".  I don't speak the language so I don't know.  But it looks very
likely to be a version of Chinook Jargon 'huloima' (Xluwima) instead.

Last, I strongly doubt both the etymology of Chinook Jargon 'seahpo /
seahpolt' from French and the interpretation of 'soyapo' as meaning 'hat
wearers'.  On the latter point, may I say that hats weren't a remarkable
item among the Plateau cultures, who wove plenty of them from beargrass
and such, long before contact with non-Indians.

But this extract from Stern's book is very interesting, whether his
linguistics is solid or not.

Best,
Dave

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