Origin of "Coquille"?

[hzenk at PDX.EDU]

Back to "skakwal"/Coquille:

I knew I had an email sometime way back there from Dell Hymes on  
skakwal.  It was kind of off the cuff so the details should be  
checked, but the form does seem to be analyzably Chinookan.  In Kiksht  
(the easternmost dialect cluster of Upper Chinook) there is both  
iS-gAkwal and i-gAkwal (A for stressed "a", iS- for the Upper Chinook  
dual corresponding to Lower Chinook S-, i- for masculine singular).   
-l looks to be a continuative suffix, ga- looks to be the verbal stem  
for 'go, move', -gw could be (?) a verbal suffix ('about', as in 'go  
about'). Interestingly, the word looks very close to the Clackamas  
Kiksht word recorded for 'spider':  a-LUgagwli (L- barred-l, U  
stressed), which Dell is less sure about, but which could be a-  
feminine + L- indefinite transitive subject + -ga-gw- (as in  
'lamprey') + -li 'like' (?).  Dell concluded (tentatively): "it seems  
very likely that the name was a descriptive name, something about the  
way it moved (continually, repeatedly).  The use of the same form for  
a kind of 'spider' would indicate that a spider (some kind of spider,  
probably not all spiders?) was perceived as having motion in a similar  
way."  In a similarly speculative spirit, he wondered if lampreys  
could be perceived as having two mouths, hence explaining the dual.   
There is also Kiksht a-gAkwal 'eel berries' (a- = feminine sing.),  
named because their color resembles that of the lamprey.

IF i-gAkwal were the source of  Jargon 'lamprey', we would indeed  
expect gAkwal: when the stress is on the stem the i- usually drops off  
when the word becomes Jargon.  Only trouble is, I've never seen  
anything like *gakwal, only skakwal, presumably derived from the Lower  
Chinook, which has S- not iS- for the dual.  Henry


Quoting jlarmagost <jlarmagost at VERIZON.NET>:

> I understand exactly what you're saying, Henry, and especially given my
> neophyte status in the field I'm a bit nervous about making this suggestion
> public, but here goes.
>
> Following up on the logic of examples like Kathlamet sp'iasx 'salmon.tail',
> for which the dual s- has a clear referent, it seems a reasonable hypothesis
> that Chinookan speakers' attention might have been attracted to some
> distinctive dual physical attribute of lampreys. For me that would be the
> sort of weird and un-fish-like two dorsal fins exhibited by many of those
> critters.
>
> I haven't found pictures of the various lamprey species Chinookan speakers
> would have known but even if they all had the requisite dual fins, that
> wouldn't move what I'm saying out of the realm of a suggestion, of course.
> Still, especially if 'lamprey' is at all an old word I'd like to think there
> was a reason for the s-. Wouldn't it be a kick if one of the Penutian
> savants had a helpful etymology up their sleeve?
>
> hayu masi (for your forebearance),
>
> Jim
>
> jlarmagost at verizon.net
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Chinook List [mailto:CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG]On
> Behalf Of hzenk at PDX.EDU
> Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 1:12 PM
> To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> Subject: Re: Origin of "Coquille"?
>
>
>> "Finally, Scott Byram pursues the origin of the name Coquille and its
>> pronunciation. He traces the evolution of the name for the river from
>> Coquell (pronounced "kå-kwel" and derived from the Chinook jargon word for
>> lamprey) to Coquille (pronounced kå-keel"), with its supposed origin in
>> the French word for shell."
>>
>
> I like this proposal, but am troubled by the lack of any attestation
> of CJ skakwal 'lamprey' without the Chinookan dual s- (if there is any
> such, I'm not aware of it offhand).  The dual here makes about as much
> intuitive sense as it does in 'robin', making the point that gender is
> more conventional than always rational in Chinookan.  Henry
>
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>

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