Tag Archives: nuts ‘n bolts

On Articles (which is more interesting than you might think. Really!)

Posted on July 31, 2020 by shichils

OK, you might be thinking today’s post about articles (that’s the fance word for little words like “the” and “an” and “a”) may be dull or pointless, but stick with me. It’s interesting! I promise. So here goes. In Miluk … Continue reading →

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Words for smallpox

Posted on May 8, 2020 by shichils

Given that we are dealing currently with a pandemic it does bring to mind previous ones. Smallpox was one of many viruses introduced from Eurasia to the Americas during colonization. It was one of the more devastating. While numerous introduced … Continue reading →

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Chasing after mystery fish and semantics

Posted on April 21, 2020 by shichils

I often wish I could climb into a TARDIS (forget HG Well’s machine, no I would much rather hitchhike with the Doctor, given a choice) and visit some fluent native speakers of Hanis, Miluk or Siuslaw. Because sometimes in the … Continue reading →

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A pattern in plant terms?

Posted on February 21, 2020 by shichils

Sometimes it is hard to tell if I am looking at an actual pattern in the language, or if it is just coincidence – an illusion. I recently puzzled out that –k’ acts as a diminutive in Hanis, and maybe … Continue reading →

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There’s more than one way to build a number (Milluk)

Posted on November 30, 2019 by shichils

Edited to add: I’ve only recently figured out that when Dorsey wrote a stand alone q, it stands for the sound most other linguists wrote as x (the ‘raspy h’ like sound). kq and k’q (which he used often) is … Continue reading →

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Does Hanis have a diminutive?

Posted on August 27, 2019 by shichils

Above: a kawol (pack basket) from Coos County (Phoebe Hearst museum collection, UC Berkeley) A diminutive is an affix that modifies a word to add the meaning ‘little’ or ‘cute’ or associated meanings like that. Siuslaw has a diminutive suffix … Continue reading →

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Waterfalls and dams

Posted on March 21, 2019 by shichils

Coyote went up the Coos River and made several small falls, everywhere he said not water enough. So he went finally to the Columbia River and made the big falls up there, he said there plenty of water. -Lottie Evanoff, … Continue reading →

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Some curious “family” words

Posted on March 6, 2019 by shichils

There are several words in Hanis and Milluk that can mean family, relatives. Some have other meanings beyond that – estis can also mean any crowd or group of people (in addition to ‘extended family’). Qahlalis also seems to mean extended family, … Continue reading →

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To Dive, Sink and the mystery suffix -m

Posted on December 4, 2018 by shichils

So the previous post was about the Hanis and Milluk verb tk’wil– to dive, sink and dilm-to be sunk in the water. In Jim Buchanan’s “Nephew Story” aka “The Girl and the Sea Serpent” the verb tk’wil-appears two more times – and … Continue reading →

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To Dive, to sink, sunk in the water

Posted on December 1, 2018 by shichils

Anyone who has ever studied another language realizes that it’s tricky translating from one language to another – there is so much variation between languages in terms of idioms, semantic domains of individual words (like in Russian they don’t have … Continue reading →

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