"Cat" word w/French definite article

[hzenk at PDX.EDU]

Not sure I believe this, in that "lapala" at Grand Ronde is not an obscure word
with wierd alternates.  It is the usual word for standing/propping meat on
sticks near an open fire (as in the traditional manner of cooking salmon).  In
the absence of other cases of pseudo-French l- (I can't think of any offhand;
note: we have p'us not "lap'us"), it would be anomalous here.  Any ideas about
the etymology of this word?  Henry

Quoting David Robertson <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>:

> Good day,
>
> In a paper I'd never seen before ("Chinook Jargon phonology and proposed
> etymologies", 1976), Samuel V. Johnson notes of the Chinook
> word "lapellah"/"appellah"...and all the other spellings of it...
>
> "The earliest attestations of ROAST do not have the initial ‘l’.  This
> appears to be a later development perhaps under the influence of the French
> article which is found in so many CJ lexemes.  EO ‘appola’
> 853COL; ‘ap’pola’ 857SWN."
>
> [The last bit means he found the word in an 1853 source & an 1857 source.]
>
> So here is another case where a word seems to have been used in Chinuk-Wawa
> pretty early, then got the French "le" or "la" attached to it.  A remaining
> question is why.
>
> --Dave R
>
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>

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