Mountain Beaver & Jargon & Chehalis & ... ?

[Dave Robertson]

--Sorry, I posted a part of this by accident before I was done composing
this message!-- Dave

Lhush chandi-ubut, khanawi-lhaksta,

Na tiki wawa wEXt ixt-makwst ikta:

* In case it wasn't clear from my original posting of this, you can refer to
a currently happening discussion on the ADS-L list by checking out their
archives at the LINGUISTlist site.  (ADS-L = American Dialect Society.
Their list is extremely active, and I find it engrossing.)

* It's obvious we can ignore the "synonym" <Chehalis> below!  That must've
been copied by someone unversed in NW studies.

* However, I do want to ask our resident Chinookan & Salishan experts about
some of the other synonyms listed.  (Rob Moore, is your email working?)  To
wit:

     - <o-gwool-lal> / <ou-ka-la> looks perfectly Chinookan, no?
     - Does the form <she-wal-lal> / <showt'l> / <sewellel> imply
          - (a) a Salishan borrowing (presumably into Lower Chehalis), or
          - (b) a form shared with Salishan, viz. the regional tendency I've
          mentioned previously for unrelated languages to share zoological
          and botanical vocabulary?
     - And does <kick-willy> here reflect interference among Chinookan /
     Salishan and Chinook Jargon?  Maybe some folk-etymologizing of a term
     in relatively unfamiliar languages into the more familiar Jargon?

In Samuel Johnson's dissertation, I'm not finding references to anything but
the usual terms for "beaver", "mountain", and "below".  No forms of
<sewellel> are present.

M. Dale Kinkade's recent dictionary of Upper Chehalis has /s-shE'wlh/ for
"mountain beaver".  Additional references under the relevant root mention
these concepts:  Marmot, groundhog, woodchuck hole, woven rabbit-skin robe,
beaver robe.  All of these may have resulted from translation difficulties,
n.b.

[Extraneous information:  The next entry in Kinkade includes a cited form,
<Pai-a-tsi'k-tsik-cu-was>, "its road", containing a clear CJ loan
assimilated to Upper Chehalis prosody.]

L.C. & M.T. Thompson's dictionary of Thompson River Salish, from the
south-central border of BC with Washington, shows me no related form
(we'd expect something like /s-xEwlh/) and no word for "mountain beaver" or
its English synonyms.  Then again, as little known as the animal is,
particularly to non-Indian researchers, that might not mean much.

B. Carlson's dictionary of Spokane shows no cognates either.  Spokane
territory is presumably just beyond mountain beavers' range, however.

Opinions?

Dave

-------------------------------[snip from original posting:]-------------
/Aplodontia rufa/, and  gives as
  other names for it: Mountain Beaver, Sewellel, Blue Muskrat, Ground
Beaver,
  Muskrat Beaver, Showt'l, Kick-willy, Giant Mole, Ou-ka-la, Haplodon,
  Aplodon, and Chehalis.
  He quotes Dr. Jas. G. Cooper:" 'The Chinook name for the animal itself is
  /O-gwool-lal./ /She-wal-lal/ (Sewellel, corrupt) is their name for the
robe
  made of its skins.' "
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