New Yorker article and mystery word (fwd)

[David Robertson]

LaxayEm, kanawi-Laksta,  ukuk chaku khapa uk Dell Hymes, pi nayka tEmtEm
tL!unEs mEsayka tIki nanich yaka...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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 10:24:17 -0500
From: Dell Hymes <dhh4d at virginia.edu>
To: David Robertson <drobert at tincan.tincan.org>
Subject: Re: New Yorker article and mystery word

Somethng very much like 'enit' has been common at Warm Springs Reservation
in Oregon for a long time.



>Hey, Jeff, you have a question, enit?
>
>I can't resist the bait:  I've heard Sherman Alexie read and talk many
>times.  He's one of the most entertaining performers (yes, performer, not
>just a writer) you'll ever come across.  In fact I believe he'll be
>performing at a benefit show for a group on whose board of directors I
>serve, Dawn Watch, later this summer in Spokane.
>
>So about this word "enit".  It's always written with a question mark after
>it.  It doesn't always mean "isn't it?"  It's more like the
>stereotypically Canadian "eh?" tag.  Alexie has done entire monologues
>about this word, and not coincidentally he's sometimes joked that
>non-Indian Americans often mistake people from his community for
>Canadians.
>
>The word is pronounced more like "ennit", or in our list's preferred
>phonetics, "eh'nI7"/"eh'ni?"
>
>Kind of like Grand Rounde CJ "wigna", as in "Lush san ukuk, wigna?"
>
>Best,
>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