tyee / tia

[Tom Larsen]

Just a guess:

If we assume that "tia" was an attempt to spell a word pronounced
something like [taye:], then this probably was a Chinookan pronunciation
of tayi.  In Lower Chinook (and also in other varieties of Chinookan? I
forget) the phoneme /i/ often tended to get lowered and lengthened to
[e:] when it was stressed. The accute accent over the a in tia makes
this seem even more likely.

--
Tom Larsen

Branford Price Millar Library
Portland State University
P.O. Box 1151
Portland, OR 97207-1151

phone: 503-725-8179
fax:   503-725-5799

email: larsent at pdx.edu

Alan H. Hartley wrote:
> Can anyone tell me what is the relationship between tyee and tia?
> Meriwether Lewis writes [3 Jan 06 in Gary Moulton's edition of the
> Journals 6.162] "we were visited by our near neighbours, Chief or Tia
> [a-acute], Co-mo-wool..and six Clatsops." Moulton says in a note that
> tia is the Chinookan word for 'chief', equivalent to the CJ term tayi
> (from Nootkan).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alan
>