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 They are older words that gradually became superseded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 commemorates 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.
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