Quiz: Diary of William Ashley (1825)

[Tom Larsen]

Well, right off the top of my head, cabar looks like it would be more
likely from Spanish caballo than from French cheval.  I am not aware of
there being any similar word for horse in Chinuk-wawa.  As for moura, I
suppose a case could be made for either Spanish mula or French mule, or
maybe even Chinuk-wawa lemel, but clearly the Spanish word looks a
little closer.  Besides, if "Ute" is supposed to actually mean Ute, or
Southern Paiute, I would expect that Spanish would be a much more likely
source language for such words than French or Chinuk-wawa.  I don't know
what kinds of contacts the Northern Paiutes may have had, but I'd still
put my money on Spanish (perhaps with one or more Native American
intermediaries).

Dave Robertson wrote:
>
> Howdy again,
>
> William Ashley, at the early date of Spring 1825, traveled overland from
> the [eastern] USA to the Oregon country.  Herewith an excerpt from his diary
> of that voyage:
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Names of Animals &[c] in Ute Language
> [...] cabar horse Moura Mule
> ------------------------------------------
>
> The quiz question is, did these words come into the "Ute" (perhaps referring
> to Paiute) language from
>
> a)  Chinuk-wawa
> b)  French or
> c)  Spanish?
>
> Dave

--
Tom Larsen

Monographic Cataloging Assistant
Branford Price Millar Library
Portland State University
P.O. Box 1151
Portland, OR 97207-1151

phone: 503-725-8179
fax:   503-725-5799

email: larsent at pdx.edu