Mystery Dictionary again (and Hancock)

[Francisc Czobor]

Klahawya !

I come back a little to Jeff Kopp’s “Mystery Dictionary” (“MD”).
I have noticed that a lot of variants of words quoted by G. Shaw in 
his “The Chinook Jargon and How to Use It” are to be found only in 
that “MD”, for instance:

Hooehooe “barter, trade”

Hykwa “Dentalium”

Hyue “enough, much, plenty”

Itlwille “flesh, meat”

Kalahkalah “bird” (‘goose”, in the “MD”)

Keelapie “turn, upset, return”

Kulakula “bird”

Konse “how many, when, ever”

Kliminawit “lie”

Sook “sugar”

Pahseooks “Frenchman”

Pasese “blanket”

Sakuleks “pants, leggings”

Saukhale “up, above, high”

Seohpo “hat, cap”

Shonta “sing”

Taghkum “six”

Talke “yesterday”

Teouit “leg, foot”

This means that Shaw knew this “MD”. On the other hand, “MD” is basicly 
derived from Gibbs. This means that it was written somewhere between 1863 
and 1909 (not such a big discovery
)

What I found interesting is that there are some matches with that strange 
dictionary of Hancock, that was discussed on this List long time ago, in 
March 1999.

There are some words in Hancock with correspondents (as far as I know) only 
in the “MD” and in the early glossaries (Ross and/or Franchere).
Some examples:

H. awuci, awutsi “swan”: MD. Ou-wu-cheh, R. Ou-wucha

H. ekon “good spirit”: MD. E-cone, R. Econe, F. Ekannum

H. ekutotsh “bad spirit”: MD. E’cu-toch, R. Ecutoch

H. emay “chest, breast”: MD. E-mi’h, cf. R. Emets-aughtick

H. emik “the back”: MD. E-meck, cf. R. Emeck-kuts-ach

H. emist, emits “nose”: MD. E-meets, R. Emeeats, F. Ibikats

H. esitsa “ill”: MD. Etsitsa, R. Etsitsa

H. etamana “prohpet”: MD. Etamana, R. Etaminua

Where took Hancock these words from? Maybe did he know that “Mystery 
Dictionary?”

BTW, in Hancock there are also a lot of Salishan words, wich I didn’t see 
in any other CW dictionary or glossary, such as:

stulis “rain” (cognates in Tsamosan Salishan: Lower Chehalis, Quinault)

stlu “wind” (cognate in L. Chehalis)

smenus, shmenus “hill” (cognates in L. Chehalis, Quinault, Nooksack)

tselil “lake” (cognates in Cowlitz, Quinault, and in “Nisqually” 
(Lushootseed dialect])

tsla.di “woman” (cognates in Nisqually and Snohomish dialects of 
Lushootseed, and in Twana)

Did Hancock take these words from a local variaety of CW, or directly from 
those Salishan languages, and mistook them as CW?

A lot of questions


Francsic

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