siwash cosho for "seal"

[Scott Tyler]

Hi Maria and All,
? baaqii dakhaa tliik maliiya ?  tluLuu atls.
The Makah word for pig is  kwishoo  which is likely derived from Chinook
kosho which is from French.
It is interesting that  k'ash-ch'u is similar sounding to Chinook word
kosho, but I think the similarity is purely accidental (or ? incidental ?).
The last seal meat I had was many years ago at Neah Bay at 'old man' Harry
Bowechop's house.  It had the texture of beef,
was very dark in color almost black (likely from the high concentration of
myoglobin---which helps the seal store oxygen in muscle tissue for long
underwater dives),
and it was fishy tasting.  More like 'fishy beef' than pork. Seal meat and
seal oil were common foods for Natives like 'bacon and eggs' for the
Americans, French and British.
I can understand them coining the term Indian pork [saywash cosho]  for
seal.
Scott

----- Original Message -----
From: "Maria Pascua" <mcrcmaria at CENTURYTEL.NET>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: siwash cosho for "seal"


> In Makah, we have several words for seal/sea lions depending on the type
> seal; our word for what we call a hair seal or harbor seal is k'ash-ch'u
> or also pronounced k'ash-ch'u-oo.
> Maria
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Chinook List [mailto:CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG]On Behalf
> Of David Robertson
> Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 8:26 PM
> To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> Subject: Re: siwash cosho for "seal"
>
> LhaXayam,
>
> "Siwash cosho" (sawash kushu) seems to me like it means "native pig", so I
> share your understanding of what "siwash" means.  Supposedly seal meat is
> like pork.
>
> There's a different word that was used in Chinuk-Wawa farther south, which
> comes from the Old Chinook language: "olehiyu" (ulXayu') also
> meaning "seal".
>
> Klahawiam naika,
>
> --Dave R
>
>
> On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 20:15:45 -0700, STEPHANIE FOGEL
> <kalapuyakwealth at MSN.COM> wrote:
>
> >I was interested in the origin of your definition for "siwash"...using it
> to describe a seal, would that be "native seal?" ...because from what I've
> been taught "siwash" was used to describe "native peoples" or of native
> origin...just interested in what you would use this word for? Or how it
> pertains to "seal"...
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Stephani
>
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