The Northern Paiute language, also known as Numu and Paviotso, is a Western Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family. Within Numic, it is most closely related to Mono and more distantly to Panamint, Shoshone (spoken in Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming), Comanche (spoken mainly in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona), Kawaiisu,…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Kalakala
KALAKALA [KUH-lah-kuh-lah] — noun. Meaning: Bird; a fowl; goose; a flock of birds; a winged insect; a wing. Origin: Chinook i-ku-la-ku-lu ‘(male) goose’; i-k’lak’la ‘(male) geese’; ultimately derived from a Chinookan verbal stem -ka or -ga ‘to fly’; -galal ‘flying’, said to be an imitation of the notes of a wild…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Mowitch
MOWITCH [MÓW-itsh] [ MAH’-witsh] — noun. Meaning: A deer; venison; game; wild animal Origin: Nuu-chah-nulth, mauitsh; Ditidaht, moitsh, a deer While the word itself refers to deer in general, as seen in “man mowitch (stag)” and “klootchman mowitch” (doe), it was occasionally applied to mountain goat or mountain sheep. It…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Itlwillie
ITLWILLIE [ITL’-wil-lie] or [ITL’-u-li]— noun. Meaning: Flesh; meat; muscle Origin: Upper Chinook, i-tlgwul; Lower Chinook i-tl’uli ‘meat’ If one had “itlwillie sick” (bruised/sore muscles), they would naturally complain “konaway nika itlwillie sick” (all my muscles are sore), a likely outcome for one’s “lejam itlwillie” (leg muscle) on Leg-Day. The meat…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Kiuatan
KIUATAN [KIU’-a-tan] or [KHI-YU-tun] — noun. Meaning: Horse Origin: Generally believed to be from Chinook i-kiuatan < ikee’utan ‘horse’, though some sources claim it is of Mamachatpam (Yakima) origin. There are several words for horses used in Chinook Wawa, though kiuatan seems to have been used more in southern regions…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Burdash
BURDASH [BUR-dash] or [BAR-dash] — noun. Meaning: Hermaphrodite; intersex; neuter; genderless. Origin: Canadian French berdache > Italian bardassa > entering European languages via Moorish Spain from Arabic bardaj, “slave” > Persian bardah, “prisoner”. In Chinook Wawa, the word burdash was commonly used to refer to accidental or incidental hermaphroditism or…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Alki
ALKI [AHL-kee] (historical) or [al-KAI] (modern) — adverb. Meaning: Eventually; someday; in the future; times to come; presently; directly; later; in a little while; after a while; shortly; will; shall; Origin: Chinook alkekh > From a Chinookan particle álqi ‘will be’, ‘later on’ The word “alki”, appeared as the slogan…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Tillikum
TILLIKUM [TIL’-i-kum] or [TIL’-LI-kum] — noun. Meaning: Person; people; relative; relation; family; kin; kindred; ally; fellow; associate; folk; tribe; nation; population; Origin: From Chinookan stems -lkh ‘ground, earth’ + t- ‘plural’ > Chinook tilikhum ‘people’ Commonly spelled “tillicum”, and sometimes pluralized in the English style as ‘tillikums”, the word…...
