"Dret" again...Re: KW #1 solves another question
David Robertson
ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU
Fri Aug 6 16:40:44 UTC 2004
Naika tlus siks,
I've been working with Le Jeune's "Chinook Manual", which is a Catholic
missal & then some, from 1896.
In a couple of the song titles, I notice that he spells them out in our
alphabet instead of the shorthand. He spells this word as "dret",
not "dlet".
This issue came up (& was interesting) because it's sometimes hard to tell
the difference in his shorthand between a "L" and an "R". One is shorter,
the other is longer, but they're the exact same shape. So, finding how he
wrote CJ words in our alphabet helps us to feel more sure of the
pronunciations he used.
Previously, I'd had the impression that the "dret" pronunciation was mostly
used around Grand Ronde, Oregon. Now I'm thinking it may have been in use
around Kamloops, BC. The origin of this pronunciation with "R" may be
different in each of the two cases...could be the French-Indian families at
Grand Ronde, and French priests at Kamloops (for example)...so this might
be a topic for a research paper.
Klahawiam naika,
--Dave
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