[fwd from A. Grant:] Cayuse, Molala, Nez Perce, CJ

[Dave Robertson]

From: "Anthony Grant" <Anthony.Grant3 at btinternet.com>
To: "The Chinook List" <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Subject: note on Cayuse
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 19:19:02 -0000

Folks:

The Cayuse language has been mentioned a little on the list recently.  =
My understanding is that a) it';s not closely related tpo anything else =
and b) it was already on its way out in the 1830s.  The old claim that =
the Whitman massacre put an end to its use is a myth. =20

I corresponded briefly with Ted Stern about it and about the Samuel =
Black vocabulary of Cayuse, and a greater length with Bruce Rigsby.  I =
also examined the two pages of this which are in the public domain, =
comparing the words in them with Molala items.  There was a rather low =
percentage of correspondences, be they shared retentions from some =
Proto-Cayuse-Molala or loans from one another or from a third source.  =
Black got his Cayuse data from Baptiste Dorion, who was also Cayuse =
resource person for some other investigators, and who was the son of the =
truly heroic Marie Dorion (who wasn't Cayuse, but Iowa).  I suspect =
that the old Cayuse language was increasingly used as a secret language =
from some way back, and that Lower Nez Perce was replacing it from early =
in the 19th century. =20

Let's hope that the Black vocabularies are published some time.  Dating =
from 1829, they're some of the earliest Plateau linguistic data =
available. =20

Incidentally, there's at least one peripheral Nez Perce loan in CJ that =
hasn't been mentioned much.  Thomas' dictionary has 'talapusha' for 'to =
pray', in the English section only.  As I recall, the Nez Perce stem for =
this meaning is /tarapoca/.

best

Anthony Grant

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



__________________________________________________________________
Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop at Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/

Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/