636 



PHILOLOGY. 



the skeleton which they already possessed, the sinews and tendons, the connecting liga- 

 ments, as it were, of a speech. These consisted of the numerals (the ten digits and the 

 word for hundred}, twelve pronouns (7, thou, tie, we, ye, they, this, other, all, Imth, ^cho, 

 what), and about twenty adverbs and prepositions (such as now, then, formerly, soon, 

 across, ashore, off-shore, inland, above, Mow, to, &c.) Having appropriated Ihese, and 

 a few other words of the same language, the " Jargon" assumed a regular shape, and 

 became of great service as a medium of communication ; for it is remarkable that for 

 many years no foreigner learned the proper Tshinuk sufficiently well to be of use as an 

 interpreter. 



But the new language received additions from other sources. The Canadian voyageurs, 

 as they are called, who enlisted in the service of the American and British fur compa- 

 nies, were brought more closely in contact with the Indians than any others of the 

 foreigners. They did not merely trade, they travelled, hunted, ate, and in short lived with 

 them on terms of familiarity. The consequence was, that several words of the French 

 language were added to the slender stock of the Jargon. These were only such terms 

 as did not previously belong to it, such as the names of various articles of food and 

 clothing in use among the Canadians (bread, flour ; lard, overcoat, hat), some implements 

 and articles of furniture (axe, pipe, mill, table, box), several of the parts of the body 

 (head, mouth, tongue, teeth, neck, hand, foot), and the verbs to run, sing, and dance. 

 A single conjunction, puis, corrupted to pi, and used in the sense of and, was also 

 derived from this source. 



Eight or ten words were made by what grammarians term onomatopoeia, that is, 

 were formed by a rude attempt to imitate sound, and are therefore the sole and original 

 property of the Jargon. Considering its mode of formation, one is rather surprised that 

 the number of these words is not greater. Liplip is intended to express the sound of 

 boiling water, and means, to Iml ; tigtiy (or tintin) is the ringing of a bell ; pd is the 

 report of a gun ; tiktik is for a watch ; tumtum is the word for heart, and is intended to 

 represent its beating; the word turn, pronounced with great force, dwelling upon the 

 concluding m, is the nearest approach which the natives can make to the noise of a 

 cataract ; but they usually join with it the English word water, making tum-wata, the 

 name which they give to the falls of a river. Mash* represents the sound of any thing 

 falling or thrown down (like the English mash and smash) ; klak is the sound of a 

 rope suddenly loosed from its fastenings, or " let go." 



All the words thus brought together and combined in this singularly constructed 

 speech are about two hundred and fifty in number. The following list may be regarded 

 as very nearly complete. 



N O O T K A. 



haias, great, very klatawa, to go 



haiu, much, many klosh, good 



kakcal, to strike, hurt, kill, destroy klutshmun, woman 



The and the sh are employed in this paper, in which a strictly scientific orthography is unneces- 

 sary, instead of the u and Q which have been used elsewhere. 



