coulee etc.

[Mike Cleven]

janilta wrote:
>
> Mike,
>
> I am not sure whether the 'coulee's are similar in France and in
> America. Probably not since the landscape is different...
> Anyway, this is the same word, even if it describes different realities
> perhaps... as, let's say, 'prairie' f ex...
> No, I don't think there is any 'coulir' in French language (nor in Metis
> French either, but there is 'coulis' I mentioned earlier)... As we
> discussed before, 'couler' is 'to flow, run' and the 'flow' of the river
> carves a 'coulee' apparently.

OK, then; I know "couloir" is sort of something that pours; in the case
of the ski chute its a pour of snow, I'd think; I thought it had to do
with flow, anyway.

> Everything's quite logical here.
> Btw, 'coulee's final sound is 'ay' not 'ee' in French.

In Prairie French?  I don't think so; the English loanword is supposedly
a pretty clear mirror of the voyageur term; the English may have shifted
the accent onto the cou-, though.  As mentioned in another tone in
another post, I'm going to try and check on some Metis language
demographics; I'll see what I can find in the way of on-line language
resources, although I think it's most likely gopher searches of academic
papers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba....


> I did not know this 'couteau' thing (and ignore if the term exists in
> French with the same meaning). I guess it is 'couteau' because it is 'as
> sharp as a knife'...

"something cut"; it's sort of a rolling escarpment that forms a long
'edge' on the prairie....I think the Missouri Breaks are part of this
formation, although it stretches from northern Alberta right to Nebraska
or even Kansas....the Missouri Couteaux, that is, the biggest one.

> 'Couloir' as used in ski is another word even if it is probably built on
> the same word root. As you probably know, 'couloir' is corridor and thus
> lane.

Yeah, maybe that tooj maybe more of narrow corridor than a pour,
although I'd gotten this impression from my skieur friends I lived with
in Whistler about the meaning; maybe there's a connotation or
something.  Anyway, it ain't a Jargon word although it's somewhat cool
and I respect anyone who's gone down the Saudan.....