tyee / tia

[Alan H. Hartley]

Thanks, Henry.

What if, instead of "in Chinookan the term is tia" we were to read "the
term was borrowed into Chinookan [from CJ from Nootkan tayi] as taye"?
The phrase "ti-a, co-mo-shack which is Chief beads" as Dell has parsed
it certainly gives one pause (and note that Clark writes ti-â
[a-circumflex] might suggest [a] rather than [e]), but against that is
Clark's (and Lewis's) gloss 'Chief(s) beads'. Or we might be dealing
with two  near homographs of tia, one [tia] meaning 'PL/prefix-', the
other [taye] meaning 'chief', though, given L&C's glosses, that seems
unlikely. (The first two quotes below seem especially clear.)

we were visited by our near neighbours, Chief or Tiá, Co-mo-wool..and
six Clatsops. [3 Jan 06 ML 6.162]

I was visited by Tia Shâh-hâr-wâr-cap and eleven of his [Cathlamet]
nation in one large canoe [10 Jan 06 ML 6.192]

These coarse blue beads are their f[av]orite merchandiz, and are called
by them tia Commáshuck´ or Chiefs beads. [17 Jan 06 ML 6.215]

Alan

> That might explain a Chinookan pronunciation of Jargon (from Nootkan) tayi, but
> it won't explain why Silverstein and Moore (cited by Moulton as authority for
> the Chinookan notes) would claim that there were two words, Jargon tayi and
> Chinookan tia (if indeed they DID claim that, as opposed to an editor somehow
> garbling things here; Rob Moore, are you still lurking out there?).  For the LC
> journal entry appearing in Moulton v. 6 p. 163, "our near neighbour Chief (or
> tia)," a note on p. 164 reads:  "in Chinookan the term is tia [italicized].  In
> the Chinook jargon it is tayi [italicized], which is borrowed from the Nooktan
> word ta:yi: [ital.]; all mean 'chief'."  I wrote to Dell Hymes some time ago
> about this:  he finds no word like tia in any of his Chinookan sources;
> moreover, "it does not look like a Chinookan noun at all."  On the other hand,
> the LC journal entry in Moulton v. 6 p. 81, "ti-a, co-mo-shack which Chief
> beads," could be perfectly OK Chinookan, granting only that the original
> meaning was "his beads" (he being the chief?).  A note on p. 82 interprets the
> Chinookan as tiaq'musakS [italicized; stress over u; S = shibilant].  Hymes
> parses:
>
> t-ia-q'mus-akS
> PL/prefix-his-bead-PL/suffix