Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Chuck

CHUCK

[chuhk] or [tsukw] — noun.

Meaning: water; liquid; river; stream

Origin: Nootka Jargon chaak 'water' < Nuu-chah-nulth cha’uk ‘water’. Also from a Chinookan noun tlchuqw ‘water’ > Chinook, tltsuk; Clatsop, tl'chukw, freshwater. Evidently, a case of accidentally converging form/meaning.

The word ‘chuck’ is extremely widespread in Chinook Wawa. While it can often be used as a shorthand of any number of bodies of water, there are often modifiers to lessen the ambiguity; "cooley chuck" (river; stream), “tenas chuck” (creek; brook; pool; moisture), “memaloose chuck” (pond), “hiyu chuck” (flood), and "hyas chuck" (deluge) are just some of them. Perhaps the most widely used variant was "skookum chuck" (whitewater rapids), a compound word literally meaning "strong water" that is found in many place names throughout Cascadia.

In addition to bodies of water, is also included activities and actions in those bodies, such as “mitlite saghalie kopa chuck” (float), “mahsh keekwullie kopa chuck” (submerge), “klatawa keekwullie kopa chuck” (dive) and “chako klahanie kopa chuck” (come out of the water). Of course, it could be risky to “klatawa kopa lepee kopa chuck” (wade) or "chuck ooahut" (to ford) out into "klip chuck" (deep water) for one might "memaloose kopa chuck” (drown) if unprepared.

The word ‘chuck’ is also used to refer to any type of “kahkwa chuck” (fluid; liquid), such as “chuck kopa stick” (sap) and “klale chuck kopa mamook tzum” (ink), "saghalie chuck" (holy water; magical potion; hot spring), and "cultus chuck" (alkali water; poison).

It lends itself to the names of some drinks, like “olallie chuck” (juice; berry juice), "chuck lapome" (cider), "piah chuck" (whisky), and that famous concoction "lumpechuck" (grog), a mixture of rum and water better known in the Queen's Navy as "diluted spirits."

It also applies to some bodily fluids, such as "chuck kopa seeowist" (tears), “chuck kopa skin” (sweat), “chuck mitlite kopa skin” (perspiration), and “mahsh lapush chuck” (spit; saliva").

There was also "salt chuck" (saltwater; the sea) and “hyas salt chuck” (ocean), places where one finds "salt chuck tupso" (seaweed) and maybe the occasional “chuck ooahut” (waterspout) during "solleks chuck" (a rough sea). Waves were normally expressed as “chuck chako solleks”, but could also be called “hiyu sea” in some cases.

The word ‘chuck’ is also used as part of a number of related marine descriptors, such as “illahee wake siah kopa chuck” (coast; coastline) and used to describe the different types of "chuck chako pe klatawa" (tide), including “chuck chako” (incoming tide; rising tide), “chuck kilapi” (outgoing tide; falling tide), "saghalie chuck" (high tide), "keekwullie chuck" (low tide), and “chuck yaka klatawa” (ebb tide).

These are all things one must be aware of when they “klatawa kopa chuck” (navigate), for one doesn’t want to be “cultus mitlite kopa chuck” (adrift) in a storm, and one most definitely dosn’t want to have to "mahsh chuck kopa boat" (bail out the boat).

Word order is important in Chinook Wawa, since “chuck mitlite kopa illahee (muddy ground) is a bit different from “illahee mitlite kopa chuck” (muddy water). Similarly, additional context can alter the meaning of a saying, as seen in the difference between "mitlite kopa chuck" (soak; to be wet) has a different meaning from "yaka mitlite kopa chuck” (they are on the water).

This also extends to phrases involving water; "mamook wagh chuck" (pour some water) is a bit different from “mamook cooley chuck” (irrigate) and “mamook liplip chuck” (boil water), and all three have a substantially different meaning from “mahsh chuck” (urinate).

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Tenas

TENAS

[TEN'-as]  — adjective.   [ten'-AS] or [dun'-US] (Grand Ronde pronunciation) — noun.

Meaning: Small; few; little; lesser; weak; young; a child; a youth

Origin: From Nootka Jargon taná(s) 'child, little' < Nuu-chah-nulth t’an’ais ‘child’

The opposite of ‘skookum’, ‘hyas’, and ‘hiyu’ in differing contexts. In the Lower Columbia and Grand Ronde Chinuk-Wawa, the distinction between ten'-as and dun'-us (not GR spellings, just approximations of pronunciations) is between ‘small/little’ and ‘child/young’.

Photo by Martha Boers.

In some usages, “tenas” means ‘child’, as in “mokst nika tenas” (I have two children) and is used to describe youths as either “klootchman tenas” (girl; young woman)  or “tenas man” (boy; young man), but these terms could be used in some cases to mean ‘daughter’ and ‘son’ respectively. These titles were also extended to describe a "tenas yaka tenas" (grandchild), like a “tenas yaka tenas klootchman" (granddaughter) or a “tenas yaka tenas man” (grandson). It was also extend to mean the young of any living creature, such as “tenas puss-puss” (kitten).

The word can be used to describe the "hyas tenas" (very small) version of something, as evident in "tenas house" (hut), “tenas labal” (bullet) and “tenas lop” (string; cord), or can denote quantity, as in  “tenas hyiu” (a few), "tenas weght" (a little more), or “tenas sitkum” (small half) which is used to describe a quarter or 25% of something. Man, those tickets were amazingly "tenas mahkook" (cheap; inexpensive)! You could say that the discount really caused the price to “chako tenas" (decrease; diminish), though the expresion "mamook tenas" was another way of expressing the same idea.

Geographic features such as a  “tenaschuck” (lake; pond) or a “tenas saghalie illahee” (hill), seasons like “tenas waum (spring) and “tenas cole” (autumn), times of day such as “tenas sun” (early; early morning) or “tenas polaklie” (evening), or recent events, like “tenas ahnkuttie” (recently; a little while ago), and “tenas laly kimta” (a little while after).

While pushing a "chik-chik kopa tenas" (baby stroller) through the park, one might engaging in “tenas wawa” (small talk) by discussing  weather conditions like a pleasant “tenas wind” (breeze; light wind) or mentioning that "tenas snow chako" (a little snow has come). However, if someone you encounter is “tenas sick” (hung over) they are not likely to be very sociable.

Like many words in Chinook Wawa, ‘tenas’ is a very popular place name, with no fewer than 30 locations featuring it as part of their name, chief among these are Tenas Lake (three located in British Columbia, one in Washington, one in Oregon, and one in Alaska) and Tenas Creek (three located in Washington, two in British Columbia, one in Idaho, and one in Alaska).

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Cheechako

CHEECHAKO

[chee-CHAH'-ko] — noun.

Meaning: Newcomer; stranger;  just arrived

Origin: Lower Chinook t'shi ‘straightaway’ + Nuu-chah-nulth chokwaa ‘come!’

A common compound word formed from the Chinook Wawa words  “chee” (new; lately) and “chako” (to come; to arrive), it was an primarily used to refer to a non-native person.

While it can mean ‘stranger’ in some circumstances, cheechako can also mean "tenderfoot", meaning one in need of learning about the land, wildlife, weather, and cultures of the region, although this mild derisive context is later and more regional, being associated with the Klondike gold rush in throughout Alaska, the Yukon and northwestern British Columbia.

One historic example of its use comes from Fairbanks hostess Eva McGown, who is quoted: "I never had any children of my own, but as someone once said, I am the mother of all the cheechakoos."

This word is still in local use in Alaska as slang for a newcomer to the state. As a side note, historically any person who survived at least one winter in Alaska was graduated to the title of “sourdough”, meaning they had become humble as they embraced the lessons that land teaches.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Puss-Puss

PUSS-PUSS

[puss'-puss] general, [pish'-pish] Puget Sound — noun.

Meaning: A cat. Also used for cougar, lynx, bobcat, etc.

Origin: English, An informal term of address for a cat. From a common Germanic word for cat, perhaps ultimately imitative of a sound made to get its attention.

While the term for a house cat in ‘standard’ Chinook Wawa was “puss-puss”, occasionally it was shortened to just “pus”, while in some localities along the Puget Sound region it was pronounced “pish-pish”. A young cat was called a “tenas puss-puss” (kitten; kittycat), while "hyas puss-puss" (a cougar; big cat) was used for the mountain lion (Puma concolor couguar), and was even used on the Canadian comedy-drama television series ‘The Beachcombers’. This term could be conceivably used for other species of wildcat, such as the lynx or bobcat, but probably only in the context of a large one, and is used as the CHinook Wawa word for other big cats like the panther and tiger.

It is worth noting that the St'at'imcets and Nlaka'pamux First Nations of British Columbia used their own word for cougar, “swaawa”.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Hiyu

HIYU

[hi-YU'] or [hy-IU'] — adjective, noun.

Meaning:  many; much; lots of; greatly; heap; plenty; plentiful; plural; enough (to go around), abundance

Origin: From Nootka Jargon hayú 'many, much' < Nuu-chah-nulth hayu ‘ten’ or ‘aya ‘to be lots’; Makah Nootkan khayu ‘ten’; Toquaht, aiya

Used with reference to quantity and numbers rather than size or degree, the term hiyu is used to describe "many", "several" or "lots of" something, as in "mika tumtum hiyu snass okoke sun?" (do you think it will rain much today?) or "hiyu tshish okoke sun" (it is very cold today)

This can apply directly to objects that “iskum hiyu” (accumulate), as in “kah hiyu stick mitlite” (forest), “kah hiyu apple stick mitlite” (orchard), “hiyu sogahs” (army), “hiyu sheep” (flock of sheep) or “hiyu moosmoos” (herd). Also, though the word “town” was used in Chinook Wawa, it was not uncommon to hear of anything from a village to a city described as “hiyu house”.

The word ‘hiyu’ can extend to concepts such as “kloshe kopa hiyu tillikums” (popular) or “halo klahowyum; mitlite hiyu iktas pe dolla” (rich), the later of which would be someone with "hiyu iktas" (many things; many goods).

It can also be applied to people, like the “man yaka hiyu cooley” (traveler) and the “ yaka kumtuks hiyu Lalang” (linguist), two people you would expect to be “kumtuks hiyu” (learned).

It can express an intensity of soemthing, like a “hiyu wind” (windstorm) and “hiyu snass” (rainstorm), or describe the outpouring of an emotion, like “hiyu kloshe wawa” (cheer) or “hiyu cly” (wail).

It can be used to turn a noun into an adjective, as seen with “hiyu noise” (noisy), “hiyu snass” (rainy), “hiyu stone mitlite” (rocky), “hiyu smoke” (smoky), and “hiyu wind” (windy).

It can be used to describe things that are “elip hiyu” (more; additional; excess), that “chako elip hiyu” (exceed) beyond the “dip hiyu” (majority), up to the “elip hiyu kopa konaway” (maximum; most).

At a convention or party, one would expect a "hiyu tillikum" (crowd; throng; many people, a big party), and likely experience "hiyu wawa" (much talk; talkative; clamor; argument).

Even if one was “hiyu chee” (entirely new) they would reasonably expect there to be  “hiyu muckamuck” (plenty of food; feast), or at least "kopet hiyu" (enough; plenty) for all of the "hiyu tillikums kopa house" (audience; many people in house). Hopefuly the cook did not “hiyu mamook” (exert) themselves do much while cutting a stake, otherwise they might “hiyu mamook cut” (mangle) the meat.

While ‘hiyu’ emphasized the abundance of something, as in “hiyu times” (frequently; often) or “hiyu chuck” (flood), it can also be modified with other worlds to show lesser degree. This can bee seen in "tenas hyiu" (a little, some, several, a few) and “tenas hiyu times” (sometimes), “hiyu mesachie mitlite” (unclean), and the expression “wake hiyu” has a wide range of meanings, including ‘few’, insufficient’, ‘lack’, ‘not many’, ‘not very much’, ‘rare’, ‘scant’, ‘scanty’, ‘scarce’, ‘seldom’, and ‘very few’.

While less common nowadays, ‘hiyu’ is still heard in some places to refer to a big party or gathering of people, as in Lillooet's one-time annual "The Big Hiyu" (also known as "The July"), a week-long joint celebration of Dominion Day and the Glorious Fourth in the Fraser Canyon town of Lillooet, featuring horse races, gambling, a rodeo and other festivities.

Of a similar nature, the Hi-Yu wass a non-profit organization established in 1934 by West Seattle's service clubs to produce a summer festival to promote the West Seattle Community. For 83 years celebrated the month of July with the HiYu Summer Festival, which featured parades, kids fishing derbies, sidewalk sales, pirates landings and garden tours among other events.

While not a common place name, there is a Hiyu Creek which connects to the Fraser River near the community of Sinclair Mills in British Columbia.

It is worth noting that some historical accounts list the word “hyo” as meaning "ten" in the early Jargon used at Nootka Sound. Some Jargon scholars believe that the words “hyas” and “hiyu” share the same origin and only one or the other may have been known or used in certain areas or periods.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Saghalie

SAGHALIE

[SAGH-a-lie] or occasionally [SAH'-ha-lie] — adjective.

Meaning: Up; above; high; heaven; sky; celestial; top; uppermost; over (above); upwards; lofty; holy.

Origin: Chinook, sakhali; Clatsop, ukhshakhali. Up; above; high.

Sometime rendered as ‘sagalie’, ‘sagalee’, ‘saqalie’, and even ‘sahhalie’ or ‘sahali’, this word was usually pronounced as if it were spelled ‘sockalie’ by Euro-Americans, while the indigenous pronunciation was closer to ‘sag-ha-lie , with the ‘g’ sound a guttural deep in the throat rather than an aspirate h.)

An adjective encompassing concepts of upwardness in direction and elevation, such as “elip saghalie” (upper; uppermost), ‘saghalie’ was used to describe the act of being on top of something, as seen in “mahsh ikta kopa saghalie” (cover) and “mitlite saghalie kopa chuck” (float), as well as describe ascension, like "mamook saghalie" (to lift; raise; elevate) and “klatawa saghalie” (to climb; ascend), as in "klatawa kopa saghalie la-montay" (to ascend to the summit of the mountain) or “saghalie kopa mountain" (on top of the mountain).

Word order and context is important in Chinook Wawa, since there is a difference between “saghalie kopa” (upon) and “kopa saghalie” (aloft; celestial).

The word also lent itself to physical features as well, such as “saghalie illahee” (mountains; highland; upland), “tenas saghalie Illahee” (hill), and even natural phenomenon, such as “saghalie chuck” (high tide), “skookum noise kopa saghalie” (thunder), and “saghillie piah” (lightning).

Zealous in their search for converts, early Christian missionaries quickly came to learn that there was no one universal deity among the FIrst Nations. For want of a native term, the evangelists instead coined “Saghalie Tyee“ (god; deity; creator) as a word of ‘Chief Above’ or ‘Great Spirit’, implying a ruler over all things.

This lead to several other neologisms, such as "Saghalie Tyee yaka book" (Bible; scripture) and "Saghalie Tyee yaka Illahee” (Heaven), as well as a number of concepts such as “saghalie tyee law” (commandments), “wawa kopa Saghalie Tyee” (to pray; prayer; worship), "potlatch kopa saghalie tyee" (dedicate; consecrate), “kloshe tumtum kopa Saghalie Tyee” (piety), “kahkwa Saghalie Tyee” (holy), “kahkwa Saghalie Tyee” (godly; godlike), “kloshe kopa Saghalie Tyee” (sacred), “wake kloshe kopa Saghalie Tyee” (profane), "Saghalie Tyee yaka wawa" (religion; sermon; gospel), and "mahsie kopa Saghalie Tyee" (praise to God; the Doxology). Even Jesus Christ was translated as "Saghalie Tyee Yaka tenas" ( God, His Son).

As a result of its use, “saghalie” also came to mean ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’, as seen in “saghalie illahee” (now taken to mean sacred or holy ground, a spirit-place, or a churchyard, but not a graveyard, which is “memaloose illahee”). There were even occasions where “saghalie” would refer to magic of the sacred or ‘pure’ kind, or be used to describe a spirit world or a spiritual state.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Hyas

HYAS

[hy-AS'] or [hay-ASH]— adjective, adverb.

Meaning: Big, great, vast, large, auspicious, powerful, important, celebrated, very.

Origin: Of obscure origin. Possible corruption of Nuu-chah-nulth iyahish "many", “much”

While similar in use to the word skookum, hyas generally has connotations of greatness, importance, or auspiciousness rather than outright strength or power.

"Hyas Sunday" was a term for a holiday, like Christmas or Fourth of July, and “hyas mahcook” could mean “a great price” or “something dear”, while “Hyas Tyee” refers to a high chief, a big boss, or even a king. This was also the common title used for the famous chiefs of the early era, such as Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation.

The word can also be applied to size, such as “hyas wawa” (to shout), "hyas ahnkutte" (a long time ago), “hyas stick” (big tree/log; big/great woods/forest), or “hyas lamonti” (the high mountains).

One might exclaim "okoke house yaka hyas” (that house, it is large) upon seeing a  "hyas house" (mansion), and it would not be unexpected to find a large "hyas tick-tick” (clock) inside. It could even be duplicated for emphasis, such as in “hyas hyas lamonti” (the deep mountains; remote faraway mountain country).

In addition to its use as a general term for size, hyas could also be used to mean "very" or "very well", in which case it usually comes in front of the word or phrase it is modifying, such as “Hyas tenas” (very small) or "hyas kloshe" (very good), as in "hyas yaka mamook wawa Chinook lalang" (they can speak Chinook very well) or "nika hyas ticky klatawa" (I very much want to go).

The word also appears as “hyas hyas stone illahee, meaning the "greatest and biggest land of stones", or "the great barren high country" in Paul St. Pierre's novella Breaking Smith Quarter Horse. The context of the title is the vast and diverse inland alpine areas of the Coast Mountains, flanking the Chilcotin region of British Columbia where the action of the novella takes place.

The expression ‘High muckamuck’ or “High Mucketymuck’ is a corruption of “hyas muckamuck”, meaning "one who sits at the head table", i.e. an official, a bigshot, or a VIP. In modern blue-collar usage, this word is one of many mildly sarcastic slang terms used to refer to bosses and upper management.

Some scholars of Chinook Wawa believe that the words “hyas” and “hiyu” share the same origin and only one or the other may have been known or used in certain areas or periods.

Today the word lives on in local names; the town of Hyas is situated near Norquay in Saskatchewan, while Hyas Lookout and Hyas Creek can both be found in Clallam County in Washington, and no less than three Hyas Lakes are located in Washington, with a fourth in British Columbia.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Opitsah

OPITSAH

[O'-pit'-sah] or [UP-tsah] — noun.

Meaning: A knife; dagger; razor; something sharp

Origin: Chinook óptsakh "a knife". The word matches one of two Chinookan nouns for “knife” or “iron”.

While the English word “knife” was occasionally used from time to time, as seen in “hyas knife kopa hay” (scythe), the native word was used more often, as also in the case of “yotikut opitsah” (scythe) literally meaning ‘length(y) knife’.

Also, illustrating the flexibility and poetic nature of Chinook Wawa, the word “opitsah” also forms the basis of several interesting turns of phrase; while a fork was sometimes called “lapooshet”, it was usually addressed as “opitsah yakka sikhs” (the knife's friend) or “opitsah yaka tillikum” (the friend of the knife), an expression could also be used to mean "beloved" or "sweetheart" in the sense that love "cuts to the heart", or that "every knife has its fork". In a more general sense, it also refers to the fact that a woodsman survives by his knife, therefore his “opitsah sikhs” ("knife-friend") is someone he can't live without, be it partner, best friend, or lover.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Snass

SNASS

[snas] or [snaws] — noun.

Meaning: Rain.

Origin: Of obscure origin, likely a manufactured onomatopoeia. Possibly Kathlamet Chinook ch’as ch’as ch’as representing the noise of rain.

A highly expressive word for rain, "snass" is said to have rhymed with the English “moss”, and is the foundation for many Chinook Wawa words and expressions regarding meteorological activity. One can inform another that it is currently raining by saying "snass chako", or say "tomollah snass" (rain tomorrow) if it is expected in the near future. A light rain shower outside is called  "tenas snass", while while a drop in temperature might bring "kull snass" (ice) or even "cole snass" (snow; hail). Occasionally the word "makah" would be used for both rain and snow, though this appears to be a local variant, possibly derived from the name of the Makah First Nation which makes their home on the western tip of the Olympic Peninsula. The expression for "storm" was a little more fluid, with a rain storm being referred to as "hiyu snass" or "mesachie snass", or occasionally "tamanass makah", though wind storms would be addressed as "tamanass wind" or "mesachie wind".

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Mahsie

MAHSIE

[MAH-sie] — verb.

Meaning: Thanks, thank you, thankful.

Origin: French, merci 'thank you’.

Sometimes rendered as ‘masi’, ‘mausie’ and even as “masiem”, the world was adopted from French as a way of saying ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you”, or to show that one is ‘thankful’, "wawa mahsie" (to give thanks, to praise), “kloshe nesika mahsie kopa Saghalie Tyee" (let us pray to God), and "mahsie kopa Saghalie Tyee" (the Doxology). However,  unlike French, the accent is placed on the first syllable when pronouncing the word in Chinook Wawa.

As in many languages, there is evidence in Chinook Wawa of calque, a process wherein the components of a word or phrase from one language is translated into another, preserving the direct meaning even if original source words become lost. This is evident in the expression “hayas mahsie” (thank you very much), an approximation of the French “grand merci”, both cases literally meaning ‘big thanks’.

The word saw the most use in northern British Columbia and the Yukon, and is still used in broadcast English in those areas.

Although Cascadia was never part of the French colonial claims in North America, and only one or two French ships ever visited the outer coast during the early fur trade era (the explorer-scientist La Perouse being the most significant), the French language was the main outside influence on the development of the jargon until the widespread influx of English-speaking Americans and British from the 1830s onwards. The cause of this was the important role played in the regional economy by the French-speaking Métis employees of the fur companies, including the Boston-owned Astoria Company.  The Métis voyageurs were the main contact the companies had with their native suppliers and customers, and many keywords of the jargon were adapted from the patois spoken by these intrepid travelers and woodsmen. The French borrowings were more widespread in the more northerly reaches of the jargon's territory, and in other areas where the voyageurs played a prominent role (including the Lower Columbia fur trade forts).