Tlingit CJ sound system? Q's about S.V. Johnson thesis

[Dave Robertson]

Hello, tillicums,

Samuel V. Johnson in his thesis "Chinook Jargon:  A Computer Assisted
Analysis of Variation in an American Indian Pidgin" (U. of Kansas, 1978),
page 211, discusses Tlingit speakers of Chinook Jargon in Alaska.  This is
the only discussion I have heard of such alteration of the CJ sound system
by Indians.  Can any of you give me more information about this, since
Johnson does not name consultants or locations?

Here is the relevant passage:

     "Tlingit dialect [i.e. of CJ] does not have labials, i.e., /p/ and /m/,
     though it does have /w/, which is a labialized velar.  Also Tlingit
     [i.e. the Tlingit language?] does not have /l/, though it does have /L/
     [i.e. voiceless lateral fricative].  When Tlingit speakers borrow
     lexemes from other languages **and when they learn CJ,** they tend to
     replace /p/ with the labialized back stop /kw/.  They also tend to
     replace /m/ with /w/ and replace /l/ with /n/."  [emphasis added]

I have many questions about this brief passage, for example,

-- How many Tlingits would have been learning Chinook Jargon circa 1975;

-- How many would have been hitherto monolingual in Tlingit, lacking
exposure to English (which would certainly equip them to say [p], [m], and
[l], assuming that such sounds are indeed markedly difficult) (compare
perhaps the pronunciations of CJ by speakers of the nasalless languages of
the circum-Puget Sound region, in most or all of which in fact nasals are
pronounceable, e.g. in "affective" or diminutive versions of words);

-- And indeed why Johnson presents the above statements, since he does not
make further reference to these points elsewhere in his thesis.

Further discussion of the implications of the above for language
universals, for Indian-to-Indian transmission of the CJ phonological
system, and for limiting effects (due to mutation of the phonology, likely
reducing distinctions between lexemes) on the geographic spread of CJ, would
be very warmly welcomed, if you have time.

Best wishes,
Dave