ku'uytEn 'horse'

[phil cash cash]

lhush wawa khapa kanawilaksta,

linguistic borrowing is a complex process, however, when it concerns animals
of acculturation such as horses, pigs, cows, etc. it seems to take on a kind
of transparency.  personally, i have become very interested in the etymology
of 'horse' terms in the northwest.   the most obvious reason being is that
my tribe is named after one, the 'Cayuse'.  so where does it originate?
ikta lalang?

after the introduction of the horse in circa 1730, the 'weyiletpu' (i.e.
Cayuse) and the 'nuumiipuu' (Nez Perce) peoples became horse breeders.
thus, the appellation 'cayuse' was given to the Indian horse that was bred
here, a medium short, stocky, durable kind of breed.  further, the term
'appaloosa' was given to a breed of spotted horse (with a bobed tail!) among
the Nez Perce.  when whites arrived, the name of the cayuse horse was thus
applied to the 'weyiletpu' people who were their main breeders.  other horse
names are present, but i will just focus on the Sp. term for now.

cayuse < caballo(s) or cavallo

if one looks to California and Mexico, the introduction and sudden
appearance of the horse shows that most of the indigenous populations
borrowed from the Spanish term 'caballo' or 'cavallo'.  for example, the
Chol show 'kawayu' and the Tzotzil show 'kawayú' (both < cavallo).  going
north many of the California groups also show this form.  here we have: Yuki
kawáyu, Nomlaki kawáyut, Patwin kawayo, etc.  the northernmost California
groups showing this borrowing are the Wintun (i.e Patwin-kawayo) and Maidu
(NE group-kawáju).

interestingly, the southern most borrowing of chInuk wawa seems to end near
the northern California area.  this is demonstrated by the presence of the
CJ term for 'cow' being found among the Karok músmus, Yurok musmus,
Chimariko musmus, Shasta múusmus, Klamath moosmoos, and Wintu muusmus.  what
this suggests is that the two regions (CA and the NW) were not
linguistically isolated.

what i am reasoning is that the etymology of 'cayuse' horse > people likely
comes from the Spanish 'caballo, cavllo' via indigenous borrowing in
California.    however, this does not solve the problem entirely and it
naturally brings us back to chInuk wawa to search for more clues.

Campbell (1999:78) suggests that cayuse 'an Indian pony' < caballo(s) Sp.
'horse(s)' and that perhaps the term was first borrowed from Spanish into
chInuk wawa and then into pushtEn wawa (English).  this seems reasonable,
but the origin of the chInuk wawa horse term "khiyutEn" (given by Tony
Johnson) needs to be determined.

Dell Hymes (thanks Dell) gave us some very good paradigmatic forms of this
term in Upper Chinook.  based on his sample, we could argue the following:

-kiu- < kawayu < caballo

in the indigenous lalang of california and mexico, it is shown that b > w
and that b > p.  but what about chInuk wawa?  does w > 0 (zero)?  i will
leave this to the CJ experts to decide.

the only other potential element in this problem is the Sahaptin horse term
'kusi'.  if the term was borrowed into chInuk wawa would it not have to be
shown that s > 0 (zero), meaning that 's' is dropped by CJ speakers?
alternaively, Nez Perce can be discounted because it shows the form 'tsiKem'
(Uppr) or 'shiKam' (Lowr) and that further it is suggested that the Sahaptin
form is a result of metathesis (reversing of consonants) from Nez Perce.

so anyway, i am on a break in my course work and can dwell on the more
interesting subjects for awhile.  i apologize if i went on but my historical
linguistics course really turned me on to all of this!

phil cash cash
cayuse/nez perce

lyle campbell.  1999.  historical linguistics: an introduction.  MIT press.
william bright.  19__?.  animals of acculturation in the california indian
languages.  university of california publications in linguistics, berkeley.
(sorry i forgot to copy the cover showing the date of pub.)