Q's re origin of coho and chum

[Terry Glavin]

hi folks.

 As for "chum" or "coho" origins, Jeffrey's account coincides with my own
understanding of a Lower Fraser (Halkomelemem) origin for coho; Also "tzum"
appears in several Chinook "jargon" dictionaries as the word for "marks" or
"writing."

 You might be interested to know that most of the latin names for Pacific
salmon (their taxonomical classifications) come from the language of the
Kamchadal peoples of the Kamchatka coast, on the Russian Pacific. Coho is
Oncorhynchus kisutch, derived from a Kamchadal vernacular. Chum, however, is
Oncorhynchus keta, from the language of the Nanai peoples, whose traditional
territories lie between the Sangari and Ussuri rivers of the Khabarovsk and
Primoye regions, south of Kamchatka, adjacent to the Sea of Okhotsk. The
Nanai speak a subdialect of the Amur River peoples, and chum is the major
anadramous fish found in the Amur, where the word "keta" means simply
"fish."

 This from F. K. Sandercock on coho and E.O. Salo on chum in Pacific Salmon
Life Histories, Groot, C. and Margolis, L., eds., University of B.C. Press,
1991.

t


---- Original Message -----
From: "Alan H. Hartley" <ahartley at D.UMN.EDU>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: Q's re origin of coho and chum


> Jeffrey Kopp wrote:
> >
> > Hi.  I received an inquiry from an author of a book about fishing who
> > needs to find the origins of both "coho" and "chum."  He said he
> > couldn't find anything on "coho," though my trusty American Heritage
> > Dictionary shows it (under "coho salmon") as "Alteration of cohose,
> > from Salish (Halkomelem)."
> >
> > However, my AHD shows "chum" as "origin unknown."  The author who
> > wrote me did not tell me where he found this:
> >
> > >The common name chum derives from the Native American Chinook
> > >language word for "striped" or "variegated" and is descriptive of the
> > >streaks and blotches markings on the body of the chum as it enters
> > >fresh water to spawn.
>
> coho, alteration of cohose < Halkomelem k'wExwEth [k' = glottalized k; E
> = schwa; w's are superscript, representing labialization of preceding
> consonants; th = theta] (HNAI VII.50, and AHD ed. 3).
>
> chum (salmon) < CJ cam 'spotted, striped' [c = ts] < Lower Chinook c'Eam
> 'variegated' (AHD ed. 3); cf. tzum 'stripes' in Harper _Chinook_. Note
> that dictionaries consider this separate from chum in the sense of
> cut-fish scattered in the water as bait, for which the origin is
> unknown.
>
> Alan