"Kleck"

[Dave Robertson]

Hi,

Jim Holton wrote:

>my guess is that it is "Laqw" (barred-L, a, q-w) from GR spelling
or "klak" from Shaw's spelling.<

That seems likely to me.  I've been debating with myself over whether it's /LaX/ "come [or go?] out/off; emerge" or /Laqw/ "removed; off" that's the more sensible reading in Jargon.  It's sort of hard to determine from Mrs. Fitzgerald's self-described non-Chinookophone spelling.

The vowel "e" here, I read as similar to that in English "deck".  It might be worth noting that Chinook Jargon as recorded in the coastal Northwest, from about Puget Sound northward, shows quite a lot of use of this same pronunciation for the [a] sound found elsewhere in CJ.  Sound recordings of Vancouver Island Indians, as well as my recollection of a Coast Salish speaker's CJ in "Thomas Paul's Sametl", provide plenty of examples.  So it's conceivable that say Grand Ronde /LaX/ = Sitka /LeX/.

Here's what really strikes me, though:  "kleck" is being used in a way that's novel to me.  That is, I don't recall having seen the word used like this (apparently translatable as "Off with you, then!") elsewhere.  Perhaps an innovation characteristic of Southeast Alaska?

The possibility remains, though, that this is a Tlingit word, or from another indigenous language.  I'm certainly at a loss for any sensible Russian original for it!

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



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