Illahee, illahie, illi'i -
Land, country, earth, soil - in both physical and political senses; the
apostrophe in the
last spelling denotes a glottal stop, as may also the 'h' in the other
spellings
Chinook Illahee - the Chinook-speaking region,
or
the land of the Chinook people (the lower Columbia)
Help - help
No, Wake, Halo - the three words
used in
Chinook for no, not, nothing, or for the negative
Wake and halo are pronounced wah-kay
and hah-lo. They are older words that gradually became
superseded by the use of "no" in the same syntactical position, e.g. no
mahkook (no sale, no deal; not interested).
Ah-ha - yes, simple assent, often used as an interjection
Kopa - a common preposition - to, at, on, with, by etc.
Please see Prepositions.
Konaway, kanawi, k'anawe - everything, and/or the
superlative.
Can be use before or after the modified word
Kopa konaway - The whole damn thing, more than a
lot,
and still more, the whole way , everything, the whole world. Konaway
kah
- everywhere. Konaway tillikum(s) - everyone, everybody.
Wawa - speak, say, tell, word(s), speech, language, talk
Also "a speech", although this concept is better
expressed by hyas wawa. A derisive reference to someone's
speech would be cultus wawa (worthless talk), or perhaps hiyu
wawa (lots of words, lots
of talk, i.e. but no substance). Another word for "language" is lalang,
which also meant "tongue"; it had no parallel meanings as "speech" or
"talk" or "say".
Hiyu - many, lots of
Could also refer to a gathering of people or a big
party, as in Lillooet's one-time
annual Big Hiyu, or as in hiyu tillikums ("lots of
people", a big party).
Hyas - great, mighty, large, auspicious, powerful
Also used as a modifier for "very" or "very well", in
which
case it usually comes in front of the phrase it is modifying, as in hyas
yaka mamook wawa Chinook lalang - he can speak Chinook very well.
Hyak - Fast, swift
Could be used as a command - Hyak! (do it
quickly, run, although the term cooley is also
available). Used for the
name of the New Westminster Hyak Festival held on the Victoria Day
weekend
and for members of the "regiment" hosting the event, which
commemmorates the
first held in the old capital. The responsibilities of the Hyak
Regiment include
the detonation of the Festival's "anvil battery" - anvils stacked head
to
head with gunpowder in between - which was the colonial solution to not
having
any cannon for the royal 21-gun salute usually performed on the Queen's
Birthday.
Klahwa - slow, slowly
Tamanass, tamahnous, tamanawaz, tamanawiz - bad, evil,
black magic,
sorcery, evil spirit(s)
Can also refer to an "Indian doctor", i.e. a "medicine
man".
Tamanass/tamahnous is the polar opposite of sagalie and kloshe,
although the latter's opposite could also be cultus or mesachie
in differing contexts or ideoms. This term crops up occasionally
in
the names of modern theatre and dance companies, where its meaning is
taken
as "spirit" or "magic", and has none of its old-time malign
context.
NB Hiyu tamanass - great evil, or great spells or
spirit-power.
Hyas tamanass - a great medicine man, or a powerful spell or
curse..
Mesachie - bad, wicked, untrustworthy
While tamanass may refer to magic or spirits in
general,
mesachie has only a negative meaning. It has sometimes
been
translated as "naughty", but this does not seem to embrace the malice
and
innate evil implicit in the context of this term; perhaps used only for
children,
i.e. "evil child" as a scold.
Cultus - bad, worthless, nothing, broken, unworthy
Can also mean "evil", although this concept is better
expressed
by tamanass and mesachie. Cultus
is not associated with the malice implicit in mesachie, nor
with the
supernatural potency of tamanass, and is more of a "benign
negative". It is the usual opposite of kloshe. See Cultus Compounds
in the
Verbs & Concepts
page for
an exploration of the many possible meanings of this common word.
Kloshe, kloosh, klosh, close - good, correct, right
Hyas kloshe - very good. Elip kloshe
-
best, the best. NB Mamook kloshe - fix it, it's fixed,
make it
better, doing OK, to make feel good, heal. Kloshe lemah - the
right
hand ("the good hand")
Skookum, skukum - Big, mighty, strong, true, genuine, solid;
in
the Lower Columbia the 'k' is unaspirated, which to English ears sound
like
a 'g'.
NB Skookum tumtum - brave, courageous,
bold. Also may refer to a demon, evil spirit, or ghost; in one
part of central Washington
the skookum was a sasquatch-like creature with a large single
spur
on its toe. Skookum is the most common and popular Chinook word
and
still in popular use in British Columbia. Modern usages: "That's
skookum"
in reference to a constructed object or a piece of work well done.
"He's
skookum" can refer to a person's size, but also to their reliability or
honesty
even more than to their physical strength. "Looks pretty skookum" means
something
looks solid or indestructible, or extremely durable and reliable. By
itself,
"Skookum!!" means "like, like, really good, awesome, man!..".
Tenas, tenass - small, little, weak, lesser, few
Opposite of skookum, hyas, and hiyu
in differing contexts. Often occurs in placenames in BC, as at
Tenass Lake, just north of Pemberton, BC. In the Lower Columbia
and Grand Ronde,
tunus or dunus is used to specify a child or youngling,
with
the 'u' denoting a schwa.
Sagalie, saghalie, sagalee, saqalie - sacred, holy,
spiritual,
of the spirit world
Can also refer to magic, but of the sacred or "pure"
kind.
Sagalie illahee - holy ground, a churchyard, a spirit-place.
Sagalie tyee - God, the Great Spirit.
Mamook - do, make, perform
Esp. as a verb participle in combination with
nouns. Please see Mamook Compounds
on the Verbs &
Concepts page.
In Grand Ronde usage, this word is a profanity for copulation; they use
"munk"
for "to do".
Tumtum, Tumtums - to feel, think, believe, hope, consider
NB Mamook tumtum - to make think, to cause to
feel,
as in Maika mamook naika tumtum kloshe - "you make me feel
good",
"you make me think good thoughts" but also "you give me hope". Tumtum
is onomatopaeoic, from the sound of a beating heart. The "-s"
ending is an emulation of the English third-person conjugation, and is
unnecessary although authentic - there are no hard and fast rules in
Chinook for verb usage and mutation. Tumtum can also be a noun
meaning "feelings" or
"the heart" or "the stomach", with the -s form the possible (but not
necessary)
as the plural. Please see Tumtum Compounds
on the
Verbs & Concepts
page.
Kumtux, kumptus (and variants) - understand, know, feel,
believe,
think of
Depending on the context, it can be used for "to
desire" or
"to want", as can tumtum, although the word tikegh or
tikke
is the more correct usage. NB Mamook kumtux - to make
understand,
to instruct. Please see Kumtux Compounds
on the
Verbs & Concepts
page.
Chako - come, come here; used as an auxiliary for "to
become"
See Other Compounds
on the Verbs &
Concepts
page.
Klatawa - to go, to walk, to travel
See Other Compounds
on the Verbs &
Concepts
page.
Cooley - hurry up, to run
Mahish, mahsh - sell, deal
Mahsh tumtum - give orders.
Huy-huy, huihui - do business, trade, bargain
Mahkook - buy, sell, or trade
See Money,
Trade, and Travel.
Iskum - hold, keep, possess, take
Tikegh, tikke - want, desire, wish, need
Potlatch, patlatch - give, gift
Also the term for the large gift-feasts that were the
main
cultural institution and economic system of native peoples.
Please see Verbs & Concepts.
Chickamin, tsikamin, chickmin - Metal,
money
Pil chickamin - copper or gold (red metal);
still in
use among prospectors and miners. T'kope chickamin -
silver. Please see Money, Trade, and Travel.
Muckamuck, mukmuk - food, dinner
Mamook muckamuck - cook. High muckamuck
- someone
who sits at the head table; a bigwig; this last is still in wide use in
BC,
even among the media. Also occurs as high muckety-muck,
or just
plain muckety-muck, with the same meaning as high muckamuck.
Please see Food &
Domestic Life.
Chuck - water, liquids
Skookumchuck - "big water"; a rapids or hot
spring; most readiy translated as "fast water" but also (I think) in
reference to
large or important springs. Saltchuck - salt water, the
ocean. There are three locations in British Columbia that have
this as a placename. Sagalie chuck - holy water, magical
potion, hot spring. Cultus
chuck - bad water, alkali water, poison
Lum - rum, booze, alcohol in general
Please see Money, Trade, & Travel and Food & Domestic Life.
Kwanesum - Forever, eternity, always
Klonas - perhaps, maybe
Spose - if, what if
Laly, L-a-a-aly - Long, long time
Properly an emphatic adjective, and used with other
terms such as ahnkuttie and alki. As with the
prononciation of many Chinook words, lengthening the vowels in this
word increases the amount
of time referred to.
Ahnkuttie - the past, Long ago
Commonly used as laly ahnkuttie - long, long
ago, "once
upon a time", the olden days, antiquity.
Alta - now, the present time, the here and now
Source of name for Alta Lake at Whistler, BC.
Alki - the future, times to come
Pronounced al-kai. Source of name for
Seattle's Alki Point. NB Laly alki -
some time soon, the
near future.
Chee - lately, new
Hyas chee - entirely new, immediately
new/recent, i.e.
"just now". The context of the name Chee Whit ("arrived one",
"new
one") may be of this reknowned person's ability to appear in
unsuspected places
in the bush. Chee Whit was a Chilcotin woman who was raped and
beaten
by her husband on her wedding night and fled, never setting foot
indoors
again. She lived for decades alone as a wanderer in the Chilcotin and
Lillooet
Wildernesses, and died sometime in the 1960s. A variant spelling of her
name
used in a recent published biography is Chiwid.
Oleman, oloman - old man, old (as
adj.)
Used as an adjective for "old" for objects and male
animals, e.g. hyas oleman kiuatan - a very old horse.
Concerning objects,it is used in the sense of being "worn out", rather
than in terms of age or provenance.
The alternate spelling of this word suggests that it may come from
"hungry
man", as elderly natives were often destitute in hunter-gatherer
societies
and dependent on others for their food. Like Scotchman,
this
is a family name in the Lillooet
region.
Lammieh, lummi, lummieh - old woman
Could be used as an an adjective for "old" for female
animals,
e.g. hyas lummi kiuatan - a very old mare, although hyas
oleman
klootchman kiuatan may have been more likely a construction.
Tyee - chief
or leader
This term is also used for extremely large salmon,
especially in the Campbell River-Johnstone Strait region; the term is
normally reserved for large spring salmon. This word resembels toyom,
which the
voyageurs give as the Inuktitut word for "chief". Sagalie
Tyee is usually translated as "Great Spirit" but literally means
"chief above". Gibbs says this is an invented term for the Deity
created by
missionaries, although most native peoples of the Northwest did have a
concept
of a supreme being or "universal spirit".
Hyas Tyee - Grand Chief, King
The title of the famous "kings" of the early coast:
Maquinna and Wickanninish and Khatsahlahno and Cumshewa, etc. and also
of the British king or local governor. In later years, and high company
or government official
or chief military officer. Unofficial social status without command
authority
or formal hierarchy was designated by high muckamuck, i.e.
"Someone
who sits at the head table; first at the pot".
Tillikum, tillicums - people, person, may also mean
"friend"
Please see People.
Sikhs, seeks - friend
Please see Family &
Relationships
on the People
page.
Cheechako - newcomer, tenderfoot (lit. "just came")
Not necessarily derisive, but often so; can also mean
"friend",
in the context of a greeting..
Please see Adjectives & Adverbs and People.
Please see Time & The Elements.
Pronouns
Nika, naika - I, me, mine
Nesika, nesaika - We, us, ours
Mika, maika - yours (sing.)
Mesika, mesaika - yours (pl.)
Yaka - he/she, him/her, his/hers
Klaska - they, them, theirs
Okook, okoke, oke, oak-oak, ukuk, uguk, uk- - this, that
Klaksta - who, "they who"
Yukwa - here, this thing here
Yahwa, Yahkwa - there, that thing there
Please see Pronouns and Interrogatives, Prepositions, & Interjections.