Alan Hartley's new article on etymology of "camas"

[rsbyram]

I haven't seen Hartley's SSILA article, but it sounds interesting.  I was
under the impression that "camas" and its variants were in use all along the
middle and lower Columbia during the months the L & C expedition was in the
area.  Then there's Jewitt's 6 July, 1805 description of "Quawnoose," a sweet,
onion-like root highly esteemed by the local people.  Wasn't it Gibbs who
first attributed camas' etymological origin to Jewitt's hosts?  Seems like
camas/quawnoose/quamash may have been a widespread word for an important
Northwest trade item.  Members of the L & C group may have heard it first from
their first Plateau/Columbia River contacts - the Nez Perce - but its use was
likely much more widespread at this time.

--Scott Byram



>===== Original Message From TuktiWawa at NETSCAPE.NET =====
>Tlus tanas pulakli,
>
>Having just received the latest newsletter of SSILA*, I'd like to praise one
of our listmembers, Alan Hartley, for his fine "Etymological Notes"
contribution on the etymology of the word "camas".
>
>Drawing on numerous sources, Alan shows why the etymology of this word should
be recorded as Sahaptian, specifically Nez Perce.  Alan also discusses the
relation of "camas" to Chinook Jargon, which in a nutshell is:  The word was
picked up from Nez Perce by French- and English-speaking members of the Lewis
& Clark expedition, thence passed into CJ.
>
>In contributing this article to the SSILA Newsletter, Alan's helped to clear
up a mistaken, if venerable, etymological assumption.  Thank you!  (Thanks
also for the mention of our "active online Chinook Jargon community".)
>
>Will you be working up the etymology of "wapato" next?  ;-)
>
>Dave
>__________________________________________________________________
>*Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas,
_Newsletter_ XX:3 (October 2001), pages 10-11.  Membership in the Society
costs $15 (US) or $25 (Canadian) per calendar year.  Researchers interested
should see the website, http://www.ssila.org.
>--
>"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how
many diseases he has!" -- anonymous
>
>
>
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