Tilicum

[Theresa Kishkan]

Hi Andy,

The linguists on this List will provide you with excellent information on
Tillicum (it was the name of my elementary school in Victoria, B.C. in the
mid-1960s...) but I thought I'd add my two cents (pence) worth about yerba
buena. Its Latin name is Satureja douglasii, it's a trailing mint,
evergreen, with little pale pink or white flowers. I'm not certain of this
but I think my area -- Sechelt Peninsula,  north of Vancouver -- is about as
far north as it grows. It smells strongly of something like eucalyptus and
was used as a steaming herb for congestion and colds by indigenous people
all along the Pacific coast.

Theresa Kishkann




>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.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia
>Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties
>Inc.
>
Theresa Kishkan
RR1 Site 20 C11
Madeira Park, B.C.
V0N 2H0
(604)883-2377
Red Laredo Boots (1996); Sisters of Grass (2000); Inishbream (2001)

"There were days when I almost went back, when the city was rank with fish
and I remembered the nets, still usable, when my eyes filled with the memory
of soft gas lamps and mist."
                         --Inishbream