Pelton ikta (something crazy?)

[Mike Cleven]

[English translation follows]

Hiyu Klahowya Konaway!  Naika elip tumtum ikta klonas pelton; klonas
kloshe.  Kloshe mamook wawa kilapie kopa yaka.

Naika kwolann wawa yukwa kopa ikt man yaka wake tikegh hiyu yiem kopa list
(e-lo'lo?).  Klonas yaka mitlite hyas school type, yaka wake tikegh yiem pe
hihi kopa mamook study lalang.  Na?

Okoke tumtum kopa mamook chee e-lo'lo - naika tikegh; yaka kloshe tumtum.
Ikt list kopa science pe history, pe huloima e-lo'lo kopa yiem, pe kopa
mamook wawa, kahkwa tenas town.  Klonas ikt sun alki, spose nsaika skookum
mamook chat-lo'lo; naika iskum ICQ, spose msaika weght.  Nsaika skookum
mamook e-wawa kopa ICQ/chat kopa special sun (special times?).

Pe naika tumtum okoke ikta huloima - pe nsaika mamook chee UseNet group
kopa Jargon kopa mamook wawa kopa mamook lalang; wake mamook tzum - mamook
tlen [sound] kopa soundfiles (mp3, AVI, etc.).  Kloshe spose nem yaka group
alt.binaries.sounds.chinook.jargon, klonas
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.chinook.jargon pe
alt.binaries.sounds.wav.chinook.jargon.  Naika wake kumtux kahkwa mamook
okoke kopa hyas muckamuck sysadmin tillikums yaka mamook law kopa LaNet
[?!]; klonas kopa konamoxt kopa listserv *.edu tillikums?  Okoke kull kopa
mamook?

Msaika kloshe tumtum okoke?  Klonas pelton; naika kumtux wake.

Weght hyas hiyu Klahowya Konaway Wawa Tillikum!  Klahowyum naika wake chako
kopa Chinook Lo'lo kopa Grande Ronde.  Klonas alki waum illahee!  Naika
tikegh kopa KingChauch Wawa Tillikums spose skookum mamook tenas wawa-lo'lo
kopa cole illahee, klonas kopa Chilliwack pe Mission.  Elip weght, mitlite
hiyu huloima tillikum kopa B.C. yaka kumtux wawa; naika iskum hiyu e-mail
kopa klaska.  Nsaika kloshe tikegh chako konamoxt, na?  Kloshe mamook tzum
naika kopa okoke, OK?  Chinook Klismas Hihi, klonas tenas potlatch?

Mike

Many Hellos Everyone!  I just thought up something crazy; maybe good.
Please respond about it.

I hear the talk here about the guy who didn't like story-telling on the
list.  Maybe he was the academic type, who doesn't like tales and stories
in the study of language.  Enit?

This idea about making a new list - I like it; it's a good idea.  One list
for "science and history" (whiteman tamanass, na?  - maybe that's a bit
harsh, speaking as a hyas whiteman, albeit not deliberately a tamanass
one), another list for stories, and for talking Chinook, like a village.
Maybe one day, we could do a chat-circle; I have ICQ, if any of you do
also.  We could have chat sessions on ICQ or a chat system on special
days/times.

And I thought of something else [subt. maybe a little weird] - that we make
a new UseNet group for the Jargon for making speech; not by writing - by
sound with soundfiles (mp3, AVI, etc.).  Maybe a good name for the group
would be alt.binaries.sounds.chinook.jargon, more likely
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.chinook.jargon or
alt.binaries.sounds.wav.chinook.jargon.  I don't know how to do this
like/with the bigshot sysadmin folks who run the Net; maybe together with
the listserv.edu people?  Is this hard to do?

Do y'all like the idea?  Maybe crazy; I don't know.

Many big greetings again to all you folks.  I'm sorry to not have come to
the Chinook Circle in Grande Ronde.  Maybe next summer!  I'd like it if the
Canadian Jargon People could make a small Jargon circle in the cold
country/in the winter (sort of meaning both), maybe in Chilliwack or
Mission.  And again, there are many other people in BC who speak or know
the wawa; I get lots of mail from them.  We should all get together, eh?
Please write about this, OK?   A Chinook Christmas Party, maybe a little
potlatch?

Mike

Notes:  Some of my phrasings were just on-the-fly stabs at appropriate
wordings; I try and stay away from conscious translation from English while
writing, as ideom-to-wawa translations don't seem to work sometimes.  What
I'm learning about languages of any kind lately is that there really is no
way to directly translate how something is said in one language to a
relative equivalent in another; a lot of the time you simply say things a
different way than you would in the other language and its ideoms.  Kind of
like translating jokes, I guess.  So some of my constructions I don't know
if they've worked; because how I thought them is not how you might read them.

For example, for a subjunctive - "We should get together?" - I used "Nsaika
kloshe tikegh chako konamoxt, na?", sort of "We please-want to come
together", whereas for "It would be good if" you'd use "kloshe spose chako
konamoxt".  And "nsaika skookum mamook e-wawa" - for "we can make e-wawa"
vs. "Nsaika spose-skookum mamook e-wawa" could mean "we could make e-wawa"
and well as "Could we make e-wawa?", depending on intonation.   Are these
usages and their differences immediately apparent to those of you
experienced with composing phrases in the Wawa?

For "and again", I used "elip weght" - I guess you could use nawitka, but
in a different sense.

I didn't like "mamook tlen" for "using sound", so qualified it with "kopa
soundfiles" (tlen-iktas?); I always associate "mamook tlen" with a command
like "make some noise" or "make like a train" (for a child, or making loud
noises in general, or a bar-howl maybe).  Same disaffection with my use of
"mamook lalang" to mean "making Jargon with the tongue"; but I hope the
message was understood; maybe not - I'd find that an awkward construction,
easier to explain including the gestural auxiliary language (which we
should all work on....Gesticulation 403, perhaps).

Sometimes I just borrowed words from English where needed; I hope y'all
liked "LaNet".  Kinda catchy, enit?

Didn't know how to say "special times" or "at certain times".  Any
suggestions?


Mike