siwash cosho for "seal"

Thu Sep 16 16:48:52 UTC 2004

Hi,

Isn't this pretty transparently 'Indian [siwash] pork
[kushu]', where kushu/kosho shd be taken in its
meaning not of 'pig' (the animal), but of 'pork' (the
item of cuisine)?

As such it fits into a very widespread (Anglophone)
pattern by which a certain class of rather offensive
expressions--that you might as well call ethnic slurs
(really, descriptive epithets) are formed, where the
first term is an ethnic descriptor functioning as an
adjective, and the second is a noun, in which the
whole thing means, more or less, 'the (inherently
inferior) [___; ethnic term here]-ish version of what
*we* know as [___ noun here]'.

So, 'Welsh rabbit' (folk-etymologized to "Welsh
rarebit") is an English put-down of Welsh cuisine,
i.e., cheese on bread is as close as *they* (the
Welsh) can come to *our* (inherently superior) rabbit,
hence, 'to the Welsh, this [cheese + bread] is rabbit
(i.e., that's how poor, backward, etc. they are)'.

Another example would be 'Jewish lightning', used to
refer to a fire intentionally set in order to collect
insurance money.  Another would be 'Dutch treat'
(i.e., the Dutch are so penurious that when they
"treat" you to sthg., you have to pay for it).

I told you they were offensive.  These should of
course be distinguished from similar-looking forms in
which the adjective simply indicates place or culture
of origin--I don't think there's any disparagement
involved in 'German chocolate cake' or 'Canadian
bacon' (there would be, of course, if German chocolate
cake involved neither chocolate nor cake, or if
Canadian bacon were, oh, pork rinds).

Examples could be multiplied.  Particularly memorable
is one I learned from the late Hiram Smith of Warm
Springs, OR (d. ca. 1988), a speaker of what people
quaintly refer to on this list as "Old Chinook" (in
his case, Wasco):  "Oklahoma credit card."  Here, the
placename 'Oklahoma' does service for 'Indian', and
the term refers to a length of rubber hosing used to
siphon gas out of someone else's gas tank!

What this all suggests, of course, is that 'siwash
kosho' might well have been coined by a non-Indian
speaker of CJ, since these are all "out-group"
expressions par excellence (the late Mr Smith's
remarkable contribution notwithstanding).

So I suspect the search for seemingly similar-sounding
words for 'seal' in other languages may turn out to be
fruitless.  The model for 'siwash kushu' is probably
to be  found in English expressions like those listed
above (entering Chinuk Wawa by back-translation), and
the person who coined it was probably a non-Indian
with a low opinion of seal and other delicacies of
Native cuisine.

My two cents.

Rob

--- Scott Tyler <s.tylermd at COMCAST.NET> wrote:

> k'ash-ch'u  means  seal in Makah and is Makah, don't
> think it is a borrowed
> word.
> And I am not sure how the parts fit together
>  ch'u can be used for things that smell bad, but I
> do not know if this is
> correct for seal.
> Maria might know how this is put together for seal.
>  a wolf is  ch'u ch'u waX siL = bad breath in mouth,
> Scott
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Leanne Riding" <riding at TIMETEMPLE.COM>
> To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 1:58 PM
> Subject: Re: siwash cosho for "seal"
>
>
> > I was wondering, is k'ash-ch'u a makah word, also
> what does it mean?
> >
> > Here's some miscellaneous unimportant info about
> seals and pigs
> > that you might find interesting:
> >
> > 1) A while back we talked about an instance where
> an old CJ
> > dictionaries defined "ole hiyu" as a sea wolf, or
> seal. A day or
> > two ago while reading the french version of
> Gabriele Franchere's
> > journal, I noticed that he called the seal a
> "loup-marin" (sea
> > wolf).
> >
> > 2) Concerning pigs at Astoria, Gabriele Franchere
> (between
> > 1811-1814), said that the pigs had multiplied like
> crazy, to the
> > degree where they were causing much damage to the
> roads. He had a
> > great interest in food -- describing turnips and
> potatoes, wild
> > berries and roots, fish of all kinds, pine moss,
> sea turtles,
> > penguins (apparently not very tasty), even the
> type of tea and wine
> > they were given aboard ship. However, he made no
> mention of seals,
> > until he related an incident in which some poor
> seal hunters were
> > stranded on an island by an unscrupulous ship
> captain. Which
> > circumstance makes me entertain the idea that
> "Siwash Cosho"
> > entered the Chinook Jargon with the first telling
> of that very
> > tale. So perhaps the language of the fellow who
> was stranded, who
> > was not chinook, has some bearing there. But we'll
> never know for
> > sure.
> >
> > 3) Alexander Ross, in 1811, said he amused himself
> shooting seals
> > at the falls on the Columbia. That sounds very
> high upriver.
> >
> >
> > Oops, gotta go. Deadline!
> >
> >
> > -- Leanne (http://timetemple.com)
> >
> >
> > On Tuesday, September 14, 2004, at 09:18 , Scott
> Tyler wrote:
> >
> > > 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
> > >>
> > >> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY
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> > >> the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu
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> > >>
> > >> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY
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> > >>
> > >
> > > To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY
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> > >
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=== message truncated ===

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