kakowan

[Henry Kammler]

LaXayEm,

I heard about that mansucript before but didn't know it was in CJ, how
interesting! Then it must represent quite a Nootka-influenced jargon, I reckon.

To clear the orca-thing up from the Vancouver Island side:

/kakowan/ is clearly Nuuchahnulth /kaka'win/ which simply means "orca". And as
Dave has already indicated, Scott's Makah form /kakawad/ (wouldn't the /w/ be
glottalized here too?) is cognate with /kaka'win/.

I'm not aware of any analysis for /kaka'win/ but the "big on back" mentioned by
Scott is a good hint. Sometimes elements that are retained in one daughter
language (i.e. of S.Wakashan) have been lost or completely transformed in
another.

/yaka/ at first glance seems to be CJ but now I have some doubts. Note the
existence of a Nootkan root /yaq=/ "that which; he who". It coordinates phrases
and takes person-mood-endings. There are two subordinate suffix sets that only
differ in the third person, one is /-?itq/ and one is /-qa:/. The form /yaq?
itq/ "who is, which is" is widespread. I've never seen */yaqqaa/ but it would
have the same meaning.
Also there is a set of indefinite subordinating endings, of which third person
is /-i:/ which would give /yaqii/ "who possibly is". Note that /q/ raises
underlying /i/ to /E/ so that Carmichael would have heard [yaqE:].

"pishak" is from Nootka /p'i$aq/. We could then reconstruct an entirely
Nuuchahnulth phrase:
/kaka'win yaqqaa p'i$aq/ "an orca which is bad" = "bad orca"
/kaka'win yaqii p'i$aq/ "an orca that may be bad"
The latter one would make a lot of sense for the cultural background because
orcas were of course not per se "bad" (no "killer" whales that is). They were
the underwater counterpart of the revered wolves (like anything on the ground
had a counterpart under water).

Tempts me to wonder whether CJ /yaka/ may not have actually two sources, one
Chinookan as third person prefix and one Nootkan as phrase linking element.

Thanks for your patience.
Henry K.