Another Sahaptin - CJ cognate

[phil cash cash]

>Lhush chxi pulakli, khanawi-lhaksta,
>
>The sketch of the grammar of Sahaptin in volume 17 of the Smithsonian
>"Handbook of the North American Indian" includes the word /t'si/ (I'm using
>Grand Ronde email Americanist alphabet here) meaning "sweet".
>
>This is identical, isn't it, to Chinook Jargon /t'si/ "sweet"?



d.  i get the impression that /t'si/ is of Sahaptin origin and will be found in the majority of the
Sahaptin dialects (15 in all).   there is an uncertainty though of showing a cognate in Nez Perce, a
sister language of Sahaptin.  in NP, you have /cicyuk/ 'sweet' (where t's = c).  perhaps, here there
may have been an innovation with [ci] 'sweet'.  NP shows the added morpheme /cyuk/ + [ADJ.stem].
this could possibly represent some variant of Sp. 'azucar' or Eng. 'sugar' or Fr. 'sucre'.  this is
just a thought though and i could be wrong on this.

on a more general note, i heard my grandfather, a multilingual sahaptin and nez perce speaker,
sometimes say 'sugar' as [shuuK'e] where [e] is a 'schwa' and the [K'] gives a kind of popping
sound.  probably Fr. but most likely CJ.

phil cash cash
cayuse/nez perce