Etymological question

[hzenk at PDX.EDU]

This is a complete mystery to me.  I have never before heard or seen such a form
with such a meaning.  Henry

Quoting Francisc Czobor <fericzobor at YAHOO.COM>:

> I have read recently (World Lexicon of Grammaticalization, by B. Heine & T.
> Kuteva, Cambridge University Press, 2002, page 118) that in "Grand Ronde
> Chinook Jargon" _sim_ (with an acute accent over i, probably indicating
> length) means "to swim".
>   My question is: where comes this "sim" from?
>
>   Is it from English "swim" ? (The word "swim" appears in Kamloops CJ, in
> Jacob's CJ texts told by Thomas Paul and in J.B. Good's dictionary of 1880,
> all these reflecting the CJ of British Columbia)
>
>   Or maybe GRCJ "sim" is a contraction of the CJ word sichEm (sitshum,
> shetshom, shetsum, shetsham, etc.) "to swim" which, according to Gibbs, comes
> from Chehalis?
>
>   Or, the third possibility, "sim" is a combination/compromise of both "swim"
> and "sichEm"?
>
>   Hayu masi pus k'ilapay wawa.
>   Francisc
>
>
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