Indian sounds in Kamloops Wawa writing (fwd from A. Grant)

[David Robertson]

In a letter of April 24, 1892, Father L-N St. Onge wrote to Father Le Jeune
(publisher of Kamloops Wawa):

"Je suis heureux de constater que votre orthographe Chinook est sous
plusieurs rapports semblable au mien.  Comme j'ai imprime' mes livres moi[-]
meme, et pour diminuer le nombre de lettres necessaires autant que
possible, j'ai elimine' _ou_ et _oo_, et je me suis servi de _u_, lui
donnant le son italien.  L'institut Smithsonian de Washington fait la meme
chose maintenant, et donne le son francais aux lettres a, e, i,* de sorte
que sans le savoir, je me trouve a avoir suivi la methode soit [sic]-disant
scientifique.  J'ai aussi elimine' toutes les lettres inutiles comme snow,
sno; tkope, tkop; wheat, whit; papoos, papus; moon, mun; ploom, plum; tea,
ti; paint, pent; steamboat, stimpot, &c. &c.  C'est d'accord avec la
stenographie qui demande des signes exactement conformes aux sons, et c'est
plus court."

*footnote: "il se sert aussi de h^ pour le son guttural de loch, machen
dont je me sers aussi."

I'm purposely leaving this in French, in order to encourage our francophone
list members to contribute a knowledgeable translation for you.

--Dave R


On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 14:38:05 -0400, David Robertson <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>
wrote:

>We do know that Le Jeune corresponded quite a bit with Father St Onge, who
>in fact talked in those letters about comparisons & contrasts between BC
>Jargon circa 1895 and the Oregon Chinook he knew from decades earlier.
>(Interestingly there are a number of features in that Chinook which remain
>characteristic of Grand Ronde Jargon.)
>
>My best guess is that Le Jeune's *shorthand* alphabet may have been
>influenced by contact with St Onge, and through St Onge to the Blanchet /
>Demers tradition: I say that because Le Jeune's shorthand leaned quite a
>bit toward the one-sound, one-symbol idea, as those guys did.  (For example
>his vowels, and even diphthong combinations of 2 or more vowels, were
>written with single symbols.)  But Le Jeune's *Roman* (English or French-
>style) writing of Chinook looks a lot more like an even earlier, French-
>influenced alphabet.

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