"kansih san" = "which day" (?)

[Dave Robertson]

Howdy, 

I'm trying to get back into the habit of sharing plenty of Jargon from 
these shorthand letters.  This one was written by a Secwepemc (Shuswap), 
maybe in the summer of 1894.  I've cleaned up the spellings a bit.  

By the way, Bernard, this man elsewhere uses the word "sama" (white man) in 
his Jargon.


Three points here: 

1. The usual way of intensifying a verb ("very" or "very much") is "aias" 
in this variety.  You'll see an example below.  Other varieties use "dret" 
or other words.  

2. An expression I'm not familiar with in other places' Jargon is "kansih 
san".  It's here twice.  It literally means "how many days?", but I feel 
the writer is asking "which day [of the week/month]?".  Do you agree?*  

3. Where you see <0> below, you could insert the preposition "kopa" 
("to").  Like other Jargon varieties, this one lets you leave out the 
preposition in a lot of cases where the meaning's clear.  In practice, 
that's usually after the verbs "klatwa" ("go [to]") and "mitlait" ("be 
[at]").  


"Naika aias tiki komtaks kansih san maika chako <0> Hlawt."
I VERY.MUCH WANT KNOW HOW.MUCH DAY YOU COME <0> HALLOUT
"I very much want to know which day you're coming to Hallout."  

"Alta naika mitlait kopa Shushhwap."
NOW I BE.LOCATED AT SHUSWAP.LAKE
"Right now, I'm at Shuswap Lake."

"Pus naika komtaks kansih san maika chako, aiak naika kuli kopa Shashwap."
WHEN I HEAR HOW.MUCH DAY YOU COME, QUICKLY I TRAVEL FROM SHUSWAP.LAKE
"When I hear which day you're coming, I'll head right over from Shuswap 
Lake."  


*Most of the letter-writers would throw in a "pi" ("and/until") 
before "maika chako" ("you're coming"), to make the sentence mean "...how 
many days till you come to Hallout."  

--Dave R

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