Whence the CJ word for 'grizzly bear'? (fwd)

[David Robertson]

Lhush san, qhata mEsayka?

Na tIki wawa Dell hayu masi pus ukuk...

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 11:00:30 -0500
From: Dell Hymes <dhh4d at virginia.edu>
To: David Robertson <drobert at tincan.tincan.org>
Subject: Re: Whence the CJ word for 'grizzly bear'?

Dear David,
	Years ago Iwas going to publish a book on narratives involving
grizzly woman in the Chinookan communities.  Wrote it but didn't persevere.
At about the same time I did some lexical comparisons in Penutian, which
included terms for 'bear'.
	What I remember is that 'saim' is not readily analyzable within
Chinookan, and is not really necessary as a Chinookan word.  Grizzly and
Black Bear have other names of their own.  Almost surely a loanword in
Chinookan.
	I think the same about the occurrences in Kalapuya. Given the
greater prominence of Chinookan, along the columbia, borrowing would likely
have been from Chinookan to Kalapuya.  But no need for the Kalapuya to
borrow.  They were contingent to the Coast range and elsewhere with bears.
	So the most likely answer to the history of saim would seem to be
that it got into Chinookan and Kalapuya from Chinook Jargon. Implying some
other Native American language as ultimate source?
	Of course someone may come up with a fact that derails such reasoning.
All I have of Nootka is Sapir and Swadesh, Nootka Texts, which has a quite
alot of Nootka-arranged lexicon. Didn't spot 'bear' under sh-, or nearby,
but that's not much of a test.

			All best,

				Dell

>LhaXayEm!  Qhata mEsayka?
>
>Looking at Melville Jacobs' Kalapuya texts today I see that that language
>had a root /Sayum/ (where S can be either /s/ or /sh/), "grizzly bear",
>apparently.  This is on page 21, story number 7.
>
>But in I believe Boas' Chinook texts, and if not there, in Sapir's
>Kathlamet Chinook texts, we find a root /Sayim/ for the same thing!
>
>These are unrelated languages, according to current dominant linguistic
>theory.
>
>Because the word for "grizzly bear" in Chinook Jargon is /SayEm/, I'd be
>interested to know the probable source for it.
>
>It's not in Jacobs' list of CJ words used in the Kalapuya texts told by
>John Hudson of Grand Ronde, but...could that be merely an oversight?
>
>Or could both language groups have an essentially identical form for
>"grizzly" as part of a Northwestern pattern of shared animal names?  (Viz.
>"bluejay" in many languages of our region.)
>
>Or, might it be only coincidence that we find the same form in both
>languages?
>
>Could Hudson have been inserting CJ into his Kalapuya, in this case?
>Jacobs notes that Hudson expressed his frustration at being unable to
>speak as well in the latter  language as the people used to.  These texts
>contain plenty of inserted loanwords, mostly Jargon (e.g. basdEn, musmus,
>bib "pipe", lemchin "medicine") and English (cedar, rheumatism, Shaker,
>caterpillar, matches, and so on).
>
>Wik na kEmtEks.
>
>Pi alta na lhatEwa.
>
>Dave
>
>
>
> *VISIT the archives of the CHINOOK jargon and the SALISHAN & neighboring*
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