Iwash

[Leland Bryant Ross]

On the other hand in a lot of Salish languages s- is a common nominal prefix, so "Siwash" might have been more than ordinarily offensive to such speakers if they heard it as "s-Iwash". You'd have to know a fair amount of French to realize "sawash" was "sauvage", whereas the folk etymology from Iwash (if this turns out to be true) might spring readily to mind.

lilEnd

-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Robertson <ddr11 at uvic.ca>
>Sent: Feb 23, 2009 4:07 PM
>To: CHINOOK at listserv.linguistlist.org
>Subject: "Iwash"?
>
>Found this in the Wikipedia article about Chinook Jargon.  "Iwash" reputedly
>meaning "penis."  Never heard the word, ignorant as I am.  
>
>Sixty-Four Years as a Writer
>By Bill Gulick
>Edition: illustrated
>Published by Caxton Press, 2006
>ISBN 0870044532, 9780870044533
>344 pages
>
>This book [pages 102-103] is the citation given for "iwash".  The reference
>is a rock formation in the Rooster Rock State Park area.  Supposedly "iwash"
>meant "penis" or vulgarly "cock", which was sanitized to "rooster".  
>
>If the place were called Siwash Rock, which several places indeed were (e.g.
>in Vancouver BC's Stanley Park), it'd be easy for a misspelling or more
>likely typographical error "Iwash Rock" to emerge.  
>
>I'll have to go scour old CJ dictionaries for "Iwash" to disprove this idea.
>
>---Dave R
>
>To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!


Leland Bryant Ross
Webmaster
fremontbaptistchurch.org
Seattle

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