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

[zenk at USWESTMAIL.NET]

>
> > But I wonder if many words attributed to eastern language origins
> > have been biased by the east to west migration of people and linguists?
>
> I can think of one case in which it was clearly the opposite that
> occurred: the origin of the Eng. word CAMAS has long been attributed to
> Nootka, but it's evident that it came from Nez Perce and entered CJ from
> the east.

At least, indirectly from the east.  CW lakamas 'camas' is probably ultimately from Nez Perce qem'es (m'=glottalized "m"), but must have come into CW through French lips.  Not only the article la- argues so, but the replacement of NP q by k in the CW word:  a replacement that wouldn't make sense for Indian to Indian transmission (m' is different, as that is not normally a CW sound).

Alan, while you're on the line:  the Gabriel Franchere reference for "Equannet, saumon" is from p. 204 of his Relation d'un Voyage a la cote du Nord-Ouest de l'Amerique Septentrionale ..., published in Montreal in 1820.  Henry


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