kakowan & reduplication

[Jim Holton]

Carmichael is definitely writing in Chinook Jargon.  In introducing the
14 typed pages, he says,

"This legend was told to Hy-na-um by his uncle Cheepaw; father wa
Tsa-tsa-wist-a-a,  Hy-na-um told it to me.

"Believing that there are many who would like to know what Chinook
sounds like, I have written the legend in that jargon, each paragraph
followed by a somewhat free translation.

"Sometimes Hy-na-um (the white people called him Mr. Bengi) found his
knowledge of Chinook insifficient for his purpose.  He would then lapse
into his native Ohyat, supplemented by dramatic pestures.  I believe I
sensed what he meant and for the sake of continuity, I have written
these passages of his narration in Chinook, and then translated them.

"Hy-na-um did not tell me the name of the daughter of Cha-uts-sem who
married ya-ee.  Na-no-na, the name I give her is a purely fictional one."

The document is about 14 typed pages long with alternating Chinook and
English translation.  It is quite light reading in Chinook.  It uses the
basic core Chinook vocabulary and it seems that only some of the whales
names are in the Ohyaht language.  I don't know how much Carmichael
created himself and how much was actually "recorded" from Hy-na-um.

Klahauyem, Jim


Henry Kammler wrote:

>One more note:
>
>As Scott mentioned /kakawad/ as "long on the back", I had to figure it out.
>Indeed there is a Nootkan root /ka=/ "protruding" and a suffix /-'win(q)/ "in
>the middle". To take up Dave's idea: some suffixes cause a reduplication of the
>first CV-Sequence of the root but /-'win(q)/ doesn't. The two elements would
>yield */ka'win/, not /kaka'win/. Simple reduplication, however, is freely
>productive on whole words (when it is not conditioned by other elements),
>mostly in a distributive sense. /kaka'win/ could then literally mean "severally
>protruding in the middle" conveying the picture of several orcas finning. Just
>a guess. At any rate, this seems to be another example of metaphorical,
>euphimistic use of words.
>
>Carmichael may actually have been trying to write Nootka. Just as the alleged
>CJ in John Jewitt's diary which is in most cases simplified Nootka, too.
>
>Henry K.
>
>