spakram

[Francisc Czobor]

Klahawiam kanawe klaksta,
   
  Thank you very much for the replies!
  Yes, it looks that I made a confusion between Thompson and Shuswap...
  But what have flowers to do with bitterroot?
  Le Jeune's "spakram" means "flowers" or "flowery"; Good's Thompson "spakum" means "flowers"; and Saanich "speq'EN" means "flower".
  I have the impression that this is a different word than the BC Salish names for "bitterroot" (sp(')at'm, sp(')et'm, spit'Em).
  As far as I know, Le Jeune didn't use "kr" for [tL']. But he used sometimes "kr" for a special k-sound, most probably [q'] (cf. "krell" for [q'El] "hard" in "Chinook Vocabulary" - 1892, and in "Practical Chinook Vocabulary" - 1886).
  Thus, "spakram" could be in fact something like [spaq'am] or [spaq'Em], quite similar with Thompson "spakum" (where "u" is most probably for [E]) and with Saanich [speq'EN], all having the same meaning: "flower(s)".
   
  kloonas tsepe naika, wek dlet naika komtax
   
  Francisc

Dave Robertson <ddr11 at UVIC.CA> wrote:
  in the shorthand should stand for something like /sp(')at'm/ 
or /sp(')et'm/. (And local Salish languages have an alternation of [t'] 
with [tL'].)

This "spakram" of Le Jeune's should come from Shuswap Salish, I would have 
expected. That's the language spoken in Kamloops as well as the 
surrounding region. 

But Shuswap has /spit'Em/ for "bitterroot", according to Kuipers' 1982 
community-use dictionary. That's pretty different from Le Jeune's form.

Le Jeune spoke Thompson as well, though. That language has /sp'et'm/ for 
bitterroot with the skin removed. (And a separate word for bitterroot in 
general.) This information is in the 1996 dictionary.

Whatever the origin, I've never seen the term used in 
anyone's Chinook Jargon. Le Jeune's list of month names is interesting but 
more as a curiosity, probably conveying translations of Salish-language 
words. Everyone used English (and in a few cases French) month names in 
the CJ of that region, as far as I've always found.

--Dave R

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