Tilicum

[Andy Horton]

Hello,

A message from England.

Tilicum

This may seem an elementary message for experts in the Chinook means of
communication/language and this is really an incidental enquiry about a
word that has just about crept into the English language, at least it has
crept in a roundabout way to Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England.

Questions:

1)   What does the word mean ? e.g.  People, or man (not woman?), or people
of the local tribe etc.
2)   How is the word pronounced?  spelt?
3)   What is the connection with Tillicum Vllage?
4)   What is "Elip Tilicum? "
5)   From what language or dialect did the word "tilicum" originate?
6)   From what race or tribe did the word "tilicum" originate? (this may be
a different name or the spellings may be different, and someone halfway
across the world where we speak Indo-European mostly may get confused).

And what is the connection?

I bought a boat called "Tilicum" (years ago) and I wondered where the name
came from? It is an unusal but by no means a unique boat name. It appeared
to be built by the Royal Navy a long time ago, but I have no details of how
the name was acquired. The boat in the next mooring was called "Yerba
Buena". 

Cheers

Andy Horton
bmlss at compuserve.com
Writer & Photographer
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/andy.htm

tillicum  | tlkm |  n. N. Amer. (chiefly dial.). M19. [Chinook Jargon
tilikum people f. Chinook tilxam, f. t- pl. prefix + ilxam village.] 1 A
member of one's own tribe or people; in pl., the people, ordinary people.
M19.  2 A friend. M19. 

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Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia
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