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About Siletz newsletter. (Siletz, OR) 1981-198? | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1981)
TRIBAL HISTORY ’’JARGON” It may not, at first, be easy to understand how a language composed of so few words could have been used so widely as the sole medium of commun ication among many thousands of individuals. However, a thorough know ledge of a few dozen basic words of the Jargon will give one sufficient material with which, after a little practice, to carry on actual conver sations, The unique faculty of the Jargon for combining and compounding simple words and sounds makes it capable of almost unlimited expression. There are no hard and fast rules for the spelling of words in the Chinook Jargon, and everyone, in writing Chinook, follows the dictates of his own judgment : in the fabrication of phonetic equivalents, which are at best only approximations.■ The Chinook Jargon is essentially a spoken and not a written tongue... it is very much alive. « The Chinook Jargon is absolutely inflexible. It never changes i t ’s form for mood, tense, or anything else. The same fo rm is used generally for both singular and plural, though occasionally an ”s” is added to indicate the pluraj ., Intensity of meaning or duration of time may also be indicated by prolong ation of the sounding of the word, thus; Laly (time) would be pronounced la-a-a-aly to suggest a long time. This is based upon an instinctive principle common to all tongues, just as we in English phonetically indicate prplongation of time or extension in space or intensity o f feel ing by“ means of prolonging ”a long time” into "a lo-o-o-ng time.” The personal pronouns become possessive by prefixing them to nouns, like "nika nejm," my name; "mika kuitan," your horsfe; "nesika illahee,” our land, ó- Sometimes "s" is added to the personal pronouns in the possessive case. This mode is used,only when the pronoun is the last word in the sentence, thus: "okoke kuitan nesikas," that horse is ours. CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES ENGLISH G ood‘morning. Good evening. Good d a y . Good-by. Good morning, friend Còme h ere. « How are you? Are you hungry? W h a t ’s the matter? Would you like something to eat? Do you want work? What do you want to do? JARGON Klahowya. H tl tt tl tttttt Klahowya, sikhs. Chako yukwa. Kahta mika? Olo na mika? Ikta mamook? Mika ticky muckamuck? Mika ticky mamook? Ikta mika mamook? The Siletz POW-WOW dates have been set for September 11, 12 and 13th.
