Delurking & phonetics

[Dave Robertson]

LhaXayEm,

Qhata mayka?  Rob, I don't think you can get a dictionary written in this Chinuk-wawa orthography, because it's an email approximation of the Americanist-based Grand Ronde Tribes practical alphabet.

This alphabet has been recently changed a bit, based, I understand, on experiences in teaching Chinuk-wawa to classes of people at Grand Ronde and elsewhere.  I will post separately a note about these updates.

A dictionary is being worked on right now, by the tribal language program, and it will be written in the latter updated alphabet.  We got to see a substantial sample of the dictionary at our Chinuk Lu7lu this weekend, and I must say it looks excellent.  You will hear about its publication first on this list, most likely.

Hayash mersi pus ma tiki chaku kEmtEks dret lhush Chinuk-wawa!
Dave

Rob Nierse <rnierse at ANWB.NL> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> my name is Rob Nierse and I am new to the list, so I will introduce myself properly.
>
> I'm living in the Netherlands and looking on this list since a couple of weeks.
> I am very much interested in CHinook Jargon and determined to learn the language.
> I have studied Amerindian languages for four years, mainly languages in
> Middle and South America. The only North American language I studied was
> Sechelt (Salishan). Besides Amerindian languages I studied some Basque and
> Papiamentu and pidgin and creole languages in general.
>
> So the combination of my interest in pidgins and Amerindian languages
> automatically leads to interest in Chinook Jargon.
> During my study I could not find proper texts and grammars,
> and forgot about Chinook.
>
> Lately I saw a translation on another mailing list and got interested once again.
> Things have changed now since Internet and I have found plenty of material.
>
> Even though all the sites are very instructive I still have some questions and
> I hope you can help me. One thing is about phonology/phonetics:
>
> >>> Nadja Adolf <nadja at NODE.COM> 08/31 4:31  >>>
> > LaXayEm  tilixEm,
> <snip>
>
> This is phonetic writing, more accurate than "klahowyam tillicum".
> Nevertheless I have not found a dictionary with this orthography.
> How/where can I find such a dictionary or wordlist?
>
> If there is no such list available, how can I determine the exact pronunciation
> of the words, so how do I know if a /k/ is actually a [k], [k'], [k_h], [q], [q'] or [q_h]?
> Are there rules to determine this (I'm afraid not, but one never can tell...) ?
>
> The other thing is, I would like to read texts (in my opinion the best way to learn
> a language if no native speakers are available). Where can I find longer texts
> (or a Bible translations or something like that?)
>
> Thank you for any help in advance.
>
> Rob Nierse

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