solemai etymology?

[Francisc Czobor]

LaXawyE khanawi Laksta !

 

I thought that this word is quite common in CW since I have found it in several sources, including classic ones, like Gibbs (1863) and Shaw (1909): “So-le´-mie” (it’s true that Shaw lists it in his Supplemental Vocabulary: “Less Familiar Words—Not Strictly Jargon—or of Only Local Use”); Le Jeune (Chinook Rudiments, 1924), renders it as “solemaï” in the “List of words used in other districts” (page 30 of the “Rudiments”). It appears also as “solimi” in the Hancock list (as I know from a message to the Chinook List in 1999). Since I’ve seen it first in my primary source for CW, namely Jim Holton’s Chinook Jargon Vocabulary (sulêmi), I thought it is a word of common use in CW.

Regarding the etymology, I was sure that it is Chinookan, since Gibbs gives as etymology “Chinook, SULAMICH (Anderson); Clatsop, SHOLBE”, and Shaw (following Gibbs) gives as origin “(C)”, which, according to the footnote, means “Chinook”. The fact that I found it also in the Chinookan word list of Curtis’ “The North American Indian”, in two Chinookan languages (Chinook: i-súl-miux, Cathlamet: i-shúl-lE-mix) reinforced this conviction of mine.

But reading the posts of Henry Zenk, Tony Johnson and Sally Thomason, now I understand that it could be in fact of primary Salishan origin (although it is very possible that CW took it from Proper Chinook, not directly from some Salishan language). Looking in the same old Curtis, I found something similar only in “Shoalwater Bay” (which I assume is Upper Chehalis): a-só-limsh, AND IN QUINAULT: i-só-lo-mish. The other Salishan languages of the area have different words (Cowlitz: xán-tEm; “Nisqualli”: stlxols; “Snohomish”: tlxots; Lummi: kwÉm-châLs; Klallam: kEn-choís; Twana: sklEl-hál-Es; Cowichan: kwá-ap; the Internet Saanich Vocabulary has qwEm’chalEs “bog cranberry”).

I think it is possible that this word for “cranberry” is not a general Salishan, but only a Tsamosan Salishan word: it appears in three of the four Tsamosan languages: “Shoalwater Bay” (= Upper Chehalis?), “Chehalis” (= Lower Chehalis?), and Quinault, only Cowlitz having a different term. The word could be borrowed by Chinookan languages like (Proper) Chinook and Cathlamet, but it didn’t reach Wishram; there the word for cranberry is (according to Curtis) i-yóx-pas, probably a borrowing from Yakima yóx-pas.

 

aLqi wEXt,

Francisc

 


		
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