WPA Historical Records Benton Co. Oregon

[David D. Robertson]

[My little remark is at the bottom of this message--Dave]


On Sat, 13 Jul 2002 21:13:55 -0700, hzenk at PDX.EDU wrote:

>While doing my fieldwork in the early 80s I tried to track down White
oldtimers
>reputed to have spoken Jargon, but with little success, mainly because I
was
>just a little too late.  One guy I did visit, the late Jim Attwell
(descended
>from a Cascade Locks pioneer family and the author of some locally
published
>books on local history and Indian lore), told me he learned Jargon from his
>father, who according to him spoke both Jargon and the local tribal
language
>(Cascades Upper Chinook) (this is not impossible to imagine, as the man was
>born at Cascade Locks in 1855 and grew up with Indians as playmates).  The
few
>samples of Jargon that Jim gave me, however, seemed to target the familiar
>anglicized pronunciation, e.g.:
>
>khEnchi lili mayka guli klUchmEn, given as meaning 'how long has it been
since
>you dated a woman?'


[Dave here--]  Signs of possible Indian-targetedness that I see in this
sample are:

(1) "lili" instead of *"laly",
(2) "guli" perhaps with Chinookan k~g alternation instead of *"cooley",
(3) "guli klUchmEn" (literally 'run women') with zero preposition rather
than *"guli kopa klUchmEn".

So, two points for Indian-targeted phonology and one for syntax,
potentially.  If we can read the sample sentence as "How long have you been
running after women [with no success]?" then this case is strongest.

-- Dave