origin of "quimnut", "quinnut" => Quinault?

[Deane Osterman]

Blueback refers to sockeye salmon.  "quinnat" was an early specific epithet
for chinook salmon (Reference: Scott and Crossman, 1973. "Freshwater Fishes
of Canada". A variant of quinnat, "tkWInat" (where kW=rounded k, I=stressed
i), is the term for chinook salmon in mid-columbia sahaptin (Hunn, E. 1990.
"Nch'i-Wana "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land."

Hope this helps.

Deane Osterman
Kalispel Tribe of Indians

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Cleven [mailto:mike_cleven at HOTMAIL.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 7:47 AM
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: origin of "quimnut", "quinnut" => Quinault?


>
>If "quinnat" derives from "quimnut", then it may not mean anything that
>"quinnat" suggests the Lower Chinook word for 'chinook salmon':  i-gwanat.
>When does "saumon quinnat" first appear anywhere?  Franchere's narrative of
>his experiences on the Lower Columbia first appeared in French, in 1820.
>And he has "Equannet" there as the Chinook word for salmon.  Henry


I'm not sure what language group Quinault belongs to (Salishan, isn't it?),
but doesn't that seem to be connected?  One website description on this
nation (which is 404'd) makes mention of a "Blueback Salmon" which only the
Quinault raised (?); is that a kind of Chinook salmon?  The reason I thought
of this word is because of its French appearance; I'm not sure how y'all
across the line pronounce it, though; /kwinalt/ or (a la francaise)
/keenau'/ or what?  Anyway, "quinault" seems a lot closer to "quinnut" than
"e-ganat" does....

Actually the one website I managed to get to is one Marv's server:
http://www.teleport.com/~npaihb/profiles/quinault.html
and makes mention of a health station operated by the nation at "Kweets,
WA"; could this be one of those variant forms of "nine" that we were
discussing before?  And therefore yet another Jargon name on the map.....

As far as early French records of this word go, I'm not sure whether the
journals of the Comte de La Perouse, who voyaged through the region in the
days of the rivalry over Nootka Sound; he died down near (or on) Australia
somewhere, ever made it back to France and if so whether they might have
been the source of this word (his vessel was shipwrecked); his was a
scientific expedition which apparently kept extensive detailed records of
flora and fauna encountered on the voyage (France in this period was rather
more interested in lopping off heads I'm not sure if he entered Gray's
Harbour or not but something tells me he did (Terry?); if so, and if any of
his noted made it back to la France, then "Quinault" seems like a likely
origin for the French term, especially as it seems there's some association
between this tribe and a specific variety of salmon; unless this is a
specifically "canadien" word unknown in France......

MC

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