Wawa Jargon/Ojibway

[Mike Cleven]

Jeffrey Kopp wrote:
>
> Hi.  Here is my reply to the inquirer about "wawa" in Jargon and
> Ojibway.  Mike was the only one to comment; he suggested another
> possible Ojibway word in the Jargon so I mentioned it and asked if
> our friend in Ontario might know about it.  Perhaps we can get a
> dialog going about other Ojibway words which might look similar to
> Jargon ones.
>
> >Hi, Howard.  The Jargon Web site is mostly finished, but I do keep
> >the links fresh and fix things from time to time.
> >
> >Re "wawa" in Ojibway/Jargon: I believe there is no connection.  I was
> >aware of Wawa, Ontario from Web searches for Jargon words.
> >
> >Gibbs:  Wau´-wau, v., n.  Nootka, Nittinat, WÂWE.  To talk; speak;
> >call; ask; tell; answer; talk or conversation.  Cultus wauwau, idle
> >talk; stuff; nonsense; hyas wauwau, to shout.
> >
> >Shaw:  Wawa, or wau-wau, v. n. (N) (Nootka, Nittinat,-wawe.—Gibbs.
> >Chinook,-awawa.—Boas.) To talk; speak; call; ask; tell; answer;
> >enquire; declare; salue; announce; talk or conversation; converse;
> >apply; articulate; allege; assert; blab; gab; chatter; communicate;
> >argue; gossip; demand; discuss; express; exclaim; hint; interrogate;
> >lecture; mention; narrate; proclaim; profess; propose; question;
> >relate; remark; report; request; say; solicit; message; an anecdote;
> >exclamation; oration; legend, question; tale; sermon; speech; voice;
> >harangue; inquire; jabber; mutter; supplicate; declamation; mandate;
> >narrative; precept. Example: ikta mika wawa?—what did you say?
> >[etc.]

I'd like to raise again the point that "wa" is Cantonese for "word" or
"speech" and that "wa wa" would mean "words, languages, talking".
There's legendary evidence of Oriental visitors to the Chinook lands as
well as the Nuu-chah-nulth territories and elsewhere; and there's
documented account of large numbers of Chinese workers at Nootka Sound
in the 1780s and '90s (they built the first European-style vessel built
on the Northwest Coast, the "Northwest America").  There's no sign of
other Chinese words in the Jargon (save, perhaps, in any lost or unknown
Chinese records of Jargon use) but it's interesting to consider this
possibility, doncha think?


> >
> >I found one Jargon word maybe from Ojibwa, in Shaw:
> >
> >Muck´-a-muck, n., v.  The word has been regarded as an invented one,
> >but is probably Ojibwa, as it is said to be in use at the Sault St.
> >Mary.  Food; to eat, to bite.  Muckamuck chuck, &c., to drink water
> >or other liquid.

Sault Ste. Marie, Jeff; known commenly as "the Soo".

I hadn't heard the Ojibway attribution for muckamuck before; any chance
of a cite on that Soo usage?  It's possible, don't forget, that it came
to the Soo _from_ the PacNW via the Metis, along with words like
chinook.

And speaking of "muck", I'd like to know the etymology of "Muckleshoot"
since we see the casino ads all the time up here; I know it's not Jargon
(?) and imagine it must be Lushootseed, but what it actually means might
be interesting to know.....



> >
> >One of the Jargon group thought the Jargon word "lepishemo"
> >(saddle-blanket) may have come from Ojibway.  I can't confirm this.
> >The "le-" prefix suggests it came from French, but I don't know
> >French, and the word bears no possible phonetic relation to the
> >contemporary French I looked up for either "blanket" or "saddle."  It
> >might possibly have come from Ojibway into the Jargon via the
> >French-Canadian voyageurs.  I would be interested to hear if you
> >might know about it.

"Saddle" in the Jargon was from French - lasell - and blanket was, at
least in my parts, simply "blanket", when it wasn't "paseese" (generic
for cloth).

After the debate about lepishemo a long time ago, I asked one of my
Saguenard friends about the word "chameau", since I'd thought "le p'ti
chameau" might have been a source for the word; but it doesn't mean
"warmer" (as in something that warms things), as I'd thought, but rather
"camel" as I SHOULD HAVE REMEMBERED.  I suppose there's an argument to
be made that a horse with lots of packing on it might look humped, so
perhaps a sick Metis joke might be the origin; but someone else had
pinned it to an Ojibway word (or some other language from the Minnesota
area) which sounded pretty convincing.   But we _did_ have camels in
frontier BC, of course.......