More on "Tlingit CJ"

[Dave Robertson]

LhaXayam,

>From the Yukon Native Language Centre comes the 1996 volume "Tlingit Literacy Session, Whitehorse, Yukon, February 6-8, 1996:  Guest instructor Dr. Jeff Leer".

This covers the Atlin, Teslin, and Carcross dialects of *Yukon* (inland) Tlingit.

Page 8 is titled "Some Words Borrowed From Chinook Jargon".  It is a short list; the Tlingit dialect is specified in only one instance, but see my following comments.  Here are the words...

(Tl)     nada^kw
(CJ)     lada^p
(Fr)     la table
(En)     table

(Tl)     nakwne^t
(CJ)     lable^t
(Fr)     le pre^tre
(En)     priest

(Tl)     wanadu^, older nawadu^
(CJ)     lamadu^
(Fr)     la [sic] mouton
(En)     sheep

(Tl)     wasu^s
(S.Tl)   waswu^s
(CJ)     masmu^s
(En)     cow

(Tl)     na^w
(CJ)     la^m
(En)     rum; alcohol, booze

Brief comments -- the mark ^ (carat) signifies high, long tone in Yukon Tlingit writing; there are both high and low tones, and short and long vowels.

Note the Tlingit forms have /n/ for general CJ /l/, and /w/ for general CJ /m/, as well as /kw/ for general CJ /p/.  These, if my memory is sound of Samuel V. Johnson's dissertation claims are subsitutions that would be mandatory for *coast* (SE Alaska) Tlingit, which doesn't have /l/, /m/, or /p/ phonemes.  Because Yukon Tlingit does have those 3 sounds, it would seem as though these words entered inland Tl. via coast Tl.  Extrapolating, CJ was spoken on the coast, but not in the Yukon.

Note the Tlingit forms also, for general CJ /t/, have /d/, a "plain" (i.e. neither aspirated nor glottalized) stop according to the sound chart on page 4.  Does anyone here know whether there's distinctive voicing of stops in any Tlingit dialects?

Note also the Tlingit tone patterns, which match the stress patterns of the corresponding general CJ words:  High tone for the single stressed syllable of a word, low tone for any others.

Perhaps Johnson's claims about "Tlingit CJ" having no /m/, /l/, or /p/ hold water.  I still would prefer to be shown documentation of actual Tlingit use of CJ, though, rather than infer it from loans in Tlingit.

Dave

--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



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