Vocabulary of Indian words / Nootka Sound

[David Robertson]

This is an unattributed handwritten document in photocopied form, also in 
the BC Provincial Museum archives.  Seems pretty early, for various 
reasons.  (For example, the writer uses the old-fashioned tall, straight s 
as the first in a sequence of two S's.)  

The only obvious loanword in the five pages of vocabulary (pages 17-21) 
is "soap".

Pages 23-24 are journal entries dated Aug. 25th and Aug. 27th.  What year?

The one from Aug. 25 tells of an earthquake that day.  "Our Indians" 
shouted and made noise, asking "us" to "'Mamook pooh konaway,' in other 
words blaze away right and left to frighten the 'Kilcoolly Tyhee' 
or 'Spirit of Evil'..."

I'm curious to know who wrote this, and when.  

It could be one of the earliest definite occurrences of CJ on Vancouver 
Island.  (Because it contains both Nuuchahnulth & Chinookan words.)  One 
thing I'm bound to be curious about is when CJ proper started being used up 
here.  There are skidillions of word lists (you think I exaggerate?) 
of "Nootka" from the decades around 1800.  But where should we look for the 
first actual CJ on this island?  

I'd guess it would be 1805 or later, since the earliest CJ we know of is 
from that year, in Lewis & Clarke's journals, in Clatsop country.  More 
specifically, I'd expect it to be say 1825 or later.  My rough impression 
is that it took about that long for CJ to crystallize around its own 
autonomous norms.  George Lang presented a fascinating manuscript wordlist 
of CJ circa 1826 at this year's conference of the SPCL (Society for Pidgin 
& Creole Linguistics), making the point that this is among the earliest 
such that doesn't just approximate Lower Chinookan-language words (let 
alone Nuuchahnulth words).  

Some of you who better acquainted with the historical record of this place 
than I am might be able to suggest when and how CJ migrated up the coast 
from Oregon in the early 1800s.  Remember, Victoria (Fort Camosun) was 
founded in 1843, by which time CJ had had mother-tongue speakers (!) in 
Oregon for at least 15 years.  What other Native-Newcomer contact was 
occurring on Vancouver Island between 1805 and then?  

--Dave R

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