<kuc>: Boas "Chinook Indian Language" question

[David Robertson]

On p. 636 of Franz Boas' "Chinook Indian Language" (Seattle: Shorey, 1971
[Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1911]), he lists an interjection

<kuc> 'good!'

which is shared with [Lower?] Chehalis (a Salish language unrelated to the
Shoalwater Chinook he describes in this volume, except that many Lower
Chehalis speakers were also Shoalwater speakers).

Now <kuc> is how Boas would spell a word pronounced like "coosh" in
English, /kush/.

That's a lot like "kloosh", a Chinook Jargon word for 'good'.

It's also like "tloosh" and "lhush", other regional pronunciations of the
same CJ word.

We know "kloosh" came from Nootka, now also called Nuu-chah-nulth, a third
unrelated language which is a member of the Wakashan family on Vancouver
Island, BC.  "Kloosh" is how English-speakers in the late 1700s pronounced
the Nootka word that's approximately /tlulh/.

How likely is it that <kuc> existed before "cloosh" came on the scene, and
that this word & the coincidentally similar CJ word influenced each other's
pronunciation around the mouth of the Columbia?

Or alternatively, how likely is that <kuc> came into use only
after "cloosh" came along?

--Dave R

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