Question on CJ/Shoalwater Chinook word

[David Robertson]

This is on page 641 of Boas' "Chinook Indian Language".  There he
discusses "<a-lap!u's> CAT borrowed from Chinook Jargon".  This would come
from a source form like <lapus>, which would have been given a Shoalwater
gender prefix & some diminutive consonant modification.

According to the awfully extensive vocabulary lists in S.V. Johnson's 1978
dissertation, the only form similar to this is <lepish> recorded by Lionnet
1853:12 for 'jaguar'.  (!)  Can I reasonably interpret this & <lapus> as a
French article le/la on the well-known Jargon word pus or puspus?

Can I reasonably assume from this that either pus was current in French as
used in the lower Columbia region, or Jargon speakers for some reason
Frenchified the word for "cat"?  (Maybe because it was obviously an
imported animal.)

I'm curious whether <lapus> can be compared to other Jargon words like
<lishat> "shirt" that don't seem to come from French but have French
articles in them.

--Dave R

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