An Okanagan New Year's Greeting

[David Robertson]

AN OKANAGAN NEW YEAR'S GREETING

Kla-how-you till-i-cum pe se-am?
How are you my good friend and gentleman?
	Such the good-will message, terse and brief
	Sent to his friend by the Siwash Chief,
Who meant to say that his heart was good,
They were at peace and the treaty stood,
	No more would they meet and draw their knives
	To carve each other and scalp their wives.
And I thought of you this New Year's Day
There's peace between us I'm glad to say
	The treaty stands and your friend I am,
	Kla-how-you till-i-cum pe se-am?

(From "The Sixth Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1935"
published in Vancouver BC by Wrigley Printing Co. Ltd., 1936)

Note that the "Okanagan" referred to in the title seems to refer to an
area including Mission, BC, judging by the list of members I glanced at in
this volume.  (The articles in it are about places like Enderby, Osoyoos,
and Kelowna, though.)

The use of the word "se-am" jibes with this; it's Coast Salishan,
occurring in e.g. Halq!EmEylEm (Halkomelem, the Mission-area language) and
Squamish.  si7am means something more like "noble; honored;high-class
person" in the source languages.

Note the hypercorrection of the usual "klahowya(m)" to "kla-how-you" under
English-language influence.  The question mark reinforces this
interpretation.

Just a bit of doggerel to pass the time...and to continue my attempt to
determine the extent of use of Chinook Jargon in the Interior.

Kla-how-you,
Dave

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