Tilicum

[Liland Brajant Ros']

Like Theresa, I'm not an expert on the Chinook language or the jargon
largely derived from it, but I'll post my opinions and the experts can
correct me. Some of your answers you supplied yourself in the appended
dictionary entry.

>From: Andy Horton <BMLSS at COMPUSERVE.COM>
>Reply-To: Andy Horton <BMLSS at COMPUSERVE.COM>
>To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>Subject: Tilicum
>Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 10:20:31 -0500
>
>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.

Any and all of the above, as well as (especially in English) "friend(s)".
Shaw glosses it

Til´-i-kum, or tilakum, n. (C) (Chinook,-tilikhum.) People; relations;
relatives; associate; family; folks; friends; kin; kindred; band; tribe;
fellow nation; population; person. (Applied generally, it means those who
are not chiefs. It is also used to signify a tribe or band.) Example: Cultus
tilikum,—common or insignificant persons. Huloima tilikum,—strangers. Nika
tilikum,—my relations. Yaka klatawa kopa yaka tillikums,—he has gone to his
people. Ahnkuttie tilikums,—ancestors; forefathers. Eells gives "Nika
tilikums,—my friends; my relations; so when preceded by the other pronouns,
as mika, mesika, nesika, klaska, yaka, it has reference to friends or
relations. Hiyu tilikums,—a crowd; a throng. (Other spellings: Telikom;
tekum; tilacum; tilecum tilicum; tellikum; tillikums (pl.); tillicum;
tillochcum.)

>2)   How is the word pronounced?  spelt?

Primary accent is on the first syllable. The consonants are as in English
(Chinook Jargon was traditionally written mostly in an English-based,
relatively unstandardized orthography, though there was also a unique
writing system called Duployan shorthand that was used in some circles, and
increasingly from the turn of the 20th century on there has been a tendency
to use IPA-related phonetic symbols, or "North Americanist" orthographies
that draw heavily on those symbols). The first vowel, indeed the first
syllable, is as in "till", the second vowel is a very understated schwa,
like the i in "calibrate" or the second "a" in "catapult" at normal
conversational speed; and the final syllable is somewhere along a spectrum
between "come" and "calm". "Tillicum" is the usual English spelling.
"Tillikum" is also common. Versions like yours with single "l" are less
common (in English contexts; probably more common in actual Chinook Jargon
usage, but pronounced identically. I'll leave it to the experts to say what
the proper modern orthography is at Grand Ronde, Oregon.

>3)   What is the connection with Tillicum Village?

Same word but with two l's. I imagine you have done a Google search and came
up with Tillicum Village, in which case you know Tillicum Village is an
Indian Cultural Center and restaurant (indigenous-style salmon) on Blake
Island in Puget Sound.

>4)   What is "Elip Tilicum? "

Well, Elip (EE'lip) is "first, superlative, elder", so "Elip Tilicum" could
easily be "old friend" or "best friend" or "the elders of my people". ChinUk
Wawa is a contact language, and its words, as in any trade jargon or pidgin,
are very elastic and can cover quite a bit more semantic ground than their
roots mean in the original languages.

>5)   From what language or dialect did the word "tilicum" originate?

Chinook, as your dictionary entry below illustrates. Via Chinook Jargon into
English.

>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).

The Chinook, or Chinookan-speakers, are the indigenous peoples who lived at
the time of European contact on the lower reaches of the Columbia River and
around the area where it enters the Pacific. As far as I know the Chinookan
languages per se are completely extinct, but the Wawa, or Jargon based on it
(with admixtures of Nootkan, Salishan, English, French and other vocabulary)
survives, as its use on this very mailing list evidences.  This Jargon was a
very widespread contact language in the NW US and far western Canada in the
1800s.

>And what is the connection?

The Royal Navy probably got the word from the Canadians. (If it's old
enough, it might even have been built when the Royal Navy was also the
Canadian Navy. Maybe it saw service in the Pig Wars. ;-)

>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.


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