Klee Wyck - Nootkan or Jargon?

Mike Cleven ironmtn at BIGFOOT.COM
Fri Jun 15 07:11:05 UTC 2001


Canadians in the group may recognize the appelation, which was the
pic-signing name and adopted moniker of painter Emily Carr; "Laughing
One".  In an article on revived interest in her work (actually the
interest never went away, but such articles show up from time to time to
stoke interest from newer locals unfamiliar with her work) in today's
Vancouver Sun, the appelation "Klee Wyck" is attributed to the "language
of the people she worked among, the Nootka" (pararphase; the original
can be found in the Features Section at http://www.vancouversun.com;
those of you who are unfamiliar with her work might as well trot over
there and have a gander; sublime, mystical, masterly....).  My reading
of this name is that it's Jargon "klee"=> joy, laughter, "wyck" like the
"-wit" ending in "kliminawhit".

Is the "wyck/whit" ending Nootkan in nature, and hence words in the
Jargon featuring this (primarily kliminawhit, although IIRC there's a
couple more) have a Nootkan root.  But the first part - "klee" - seems
clearly Jargon to me, unless there's something in the Nootkan vocabulary
that would disprove this.  Takers?

MC



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