/it'alapas/

[Dave Robertson]

Lhaxhawyam,

Samuel V. Johnson's thesis has, in the Appendix A "master file", under COYOTE:

<italipas> from Gibbs for 'coyote'

and, among others,

Gibbs' <tal-a-pus> 'prairie wolf; mythology deity; sneak'
and Gill's <toll-a-pes> (last vowel indistinct in my copy) 'great hero and demigod'

-- and if memory serves, Demers/Blanchet's vocabulary has something like <etalapas> -- so there we have an interpretation of Coyote as Creator.

I suggest also looking at the various subsections of Johnson's entry for SPIRIT.

Here's a similar case, of a definitely 'Old Chinookan' doublet in Jargon for a definitely Chinuk-Wawa term:  <etaminua> and similar for 'prophet, priest'.  This should be compared with /t'amanEwas/ 'spirit'.

-- Dave
--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



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