"Spuzzum" by Laforet & York: An excerpt

[David Robertson]

About the message below, let me add the suggestion that "holaporte" could
be just Chinook Jargon, /hal lapo(r)t "pull the door [open]" or /hol lapo(r)
t/, "hold the door [open]".  --  Dave R, who was searching our nice online
archives for BC pidgin English and who still marvels at the creativity of
people who'd learned Chinook and English as adults


Quite some time ago (On Sat, 5 Feb 2000 15:27:00 +0900), janilta
<janilta at J.EMAIL.NE.JP> wrote:

>David, Mike,
>
>Just a few thoughts about the French expressions in your msg.
>For 'holaporte', I can only figure a situation when someone leaves a
>place without shutting the door and the remaining party would yell 'ho !
>la porte !' (the door, darn !) or something. 'a la porte' can bear the
>idea of 'get out !' and thus 'be fired'. Cannot figure something else.
>Both 'au la bord' and 'au d'abord' don't exist. I can just think of
>'(tous) a bord !' matching the English '(all) aboard !'. 'You first'
>would be 'toi/vous d'abord'.
>'Pail' in French is 'le seau'. Maybe it is here a mistake for 'le pot'
>ie pot, jar, jug (the sounds are close to 'lapot'... if we just consider
>the mute 't' and the le/la confusion not impossible).
>'Washem' is a common expression in many pidgins to mean 'to wash'.
>
>Regards, Yann.

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!