User talk:James Crippen

Nice to see someone else interested in languages! Do you plan to start a Tlingit wikipedia? - Mustafaa 20:40, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

No, probably not for some time. There aren't enough speakers. At last count there's only about 300 or so, and all of those are 50 years or older. The number of second language speakers is growing slowly, and it'll be a few years until any new native speakers are born and old enough to be interested in something like Wikipedia. But in the future, maybe ten years down the road, I hope to see Wikipedia in Tlingit.

History of Alaska

Hi, I've been working on History of Alaska, and I've nominated it to be a featured article at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/History of Alaska. It's only five days old, so someone objected, and said he would only change or withdraw his vote if an Alaskan says it's all right. I noticed that you lived in Anchorage, so could you please help me out? Toothpaste 23:11, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

I've added my own two cents. I also made some edits to the section on prehistory. HTH. — Jéioosh 19:57, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Email orthography

Hi. I noticed on Talk:Tlingit language that you've been converting various pages to the Email orthography of the Tlingit language. I think I found some pages that you probably haven't yet: Sitka City and Borough, Alaska, Battle of Sitka, and Tlingit clans. Correct me if I'm wrong. --Hottentot

??? --Hottentot 03:37, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Sorry I haven't followed up on this. I've been a bit distracted lately. I'll go through those articles some time this week and fix them up. — Jéioosh 00:29, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I really mean to do this. I haven't forgotten, I just have too many things to do. — Jéioosh 21:10, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Tlingit pronunciation

An anon recently added a long and dubious explanation to the Tlingit article, so I replaced it with the IPA pronunciations, sourced from the American Heritage Dictionary and the OED. They seem to contradict each other as to whether Tl- or Kl- is preferred. Please see my comments on the talk page. Regards, Dforest 06:53, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Note re Hooch/Xootsnoowu

Saw your edit to the village name and proper spelling. Just to comment about the "this needs study and its own article but would be stubby", I think the Wikiproject on Indigenous peoples and also Project Alaska would probably wind up having a Xootsnoowu article at some point; not sure what's in there for the Tlinkit yet. what would be good for an article, of course, is the apocryphal recipe for the version of hooch made in Xootsnoowu. I'd be interested in any Chinook Jargon citations from up that way if you come across any; either in English usages or among natives. CJ studies is very Columbia-biased so a lot from the north, either interior or coast, just hasn't been studied, nor compiled.Skookum1 01:55, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Totem poles as pictography

Per your edits to Totem pole and comments on Talk:Totem pole, I thought you should also have a look at the Pictography article. It cites a 2003 book by Ishmael Reed that claims that totem poles are pictographic. "Reed 2003" is also cited by a para in the totem pole article, btw. Your help in correcting these apparent misconceptions is appreciated. heqs 07:29, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Heraldic motifs, perhaps, but not pictographic; mythographic, yes....interesting question but the implication of pictograph is (or isn't) pictorial story-telling; the poles are particular STORIES, and each has its own name, and is associated with a certain ceremonial name for a certain chief's clan head and so on; it's much more than pictography IMO so I'll look at Reed-3 etc and see what I can do.Skookum1 07:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

linguist assistance

You are listed in the linguist by profession category. Would you please look at the discussion at Talk:Caron? It has been suggested that professional opinions are required to resolve the dispute there.

Dance capitalization

I noticed that you listed yourself as a linguist. There is currently a dispute at the Lindy Hop article the Dance WikiProject about the capitalization of dances that could use the expertise of a linguist. If you think you might be able to help, we would certainly appreciate your comments. Thanks! --Cswrye 05:14, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Linguists don’t really deal with problems of usage or style in writing. Granted, we often complain about illogical or unnatural prescriptive rules of grammar, but only because they are unrealistic and don’t conform to the inherent linguistic knowledge of speakers. Instead you should check with professional editors and grad students in the writing fields. On the other hand, if you have a question as to what part of speech “lindy hop” is, how it is constructed, what its semantic structure is, etc., then a linguist is the source you need. — Jéioosh 10:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America Newsletter - July '06

The Indigenous Peoples of North America Portal The Indigenous Peoples of North America Portal has been established, as a starting point for those wishing to learn more about the subject, with information and links on a wide variety of issues. It also contains news regarding the continent's various tribes and nations. It's a graphically pleasing site, and everyone is encouraged to check it out. Home Page Reorganization The project's home page has a new design, featuring tabbed subpages on participants, templates, articles, categories, and the to do list. Article Classification Move The Article Classification lists have been moved to their own subpage due to size. This is a sign of progress in the ongoing work of this project. New Talk Page Template The project's talk page template has been updated, along with the classification system, to include the assessment on the talk pages of the articles that have been classified and assessed.

Balance As the Project reaches its first six months of activity, the great effort all of you have invested in it has turned the vast information available on Indigenous North American topics from a deorganized cumulous into an excellent and easy to consult database. Although much work is still in order, few WikiProjects are able to obtain the amazing results we are proud to show today. To all of you, thank you and congratulations! What You Can Do to Help The assessment of articles within the scope of the project is still an ongoing process. We need people to help in this who are not contributors to the articles they are assessing. Also, there is the ongoing need for identifying and cataloguing articles that fall within the scope of this project. As of today, nearly 1,500 have been identified within the Project's scope. Signed by Aaron Walden & Phaedriel - 15:50, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

RE: A fellow Wikipedian in Hawaiʻi!

Good to see a fellow Wikipedian in the Land of Aloha! We should organize a local meeting with other Wikipedians sometime... — Jéioosh 22:54, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

• smiles* Yes, it is always nice to meet someone from around here. And yeah, if you know of any Wikipedian meet-ups on Oahu, I'd definitely consider joining...the problem, though, is that there are relatively few of us so it's not usually productive. But, it's always worth a try! —Keakealani •Poke Me•contribs• 23:01, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Tlingit and CJ

I'll try and address the phonological mutation question you posed on Talk:Chinook Jargon later, but given your knowledge of Tlingit I thought I'd check with you on some entries on List of Chinook Jargon placenames, which I finally launched the other day. There are various cases where I'm just not sure but have listed things anyway, which might be Tlingit rather than CJ in origin - the Klahini and Klehini Rivers, for instance, which might be local CJ variants (from klahanie - "outside", "the outdoors"); have a look for anything from Alaska and see if I've overshot the mark. Another of a similar kind is Klootchlimmis Creek, on Quatsino Sound, Vancouver Island, which could be Kwak'wala or Nuu-chah-nulth; especially since, as I recall, klootchman->klootch is originally from Nuu-chah-nulth or another Wakashan language.Skookum1 05:24, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Klahini is from Tlingit. The latter part of the name is from héen meaning “fresh water, river”. The Stikine River is another example of this, from Shtax' Héen although in the English version of the name the héen is hard to see. I’m not sure what the former part is, although I’d guess it was something like tlei in Tlingit. There’s a river and hot springs in YT that share a Tlingit name, Takhini, from Taxhhéeni meaning “broth, soup”.

From what I’ve learned about CJ and Tlingit, it seems that there was a lot of tension between speaking CJ and speaking English in Southeast Alaska after the Russians departed. Whites certainly spoke CJ to the Tlingit quite a bit in the early days given the number of loanwords for basic western goods. There are also memories of Tlingit people speaking it with native fluency. However it seems that CJ declined in favor of English earlier than it did in the southern regions. This is probably due to the influence of the gold rushes that brought many whites from California and elsewhere who were unfamiliar with CJ. On the other hand, there was a contingent of Tlingit people who worked seasonally in the area near Victoria, so CJ was certainly well known by a minority, and frequent trading expeditions to southern BC and Washington would undoubtedly necessitate the use of CJ. But since there was little long term close contact between the Tlingit and CJ-speaking tribes, most Tlingit people seem to have had little or no knowledge of the pidgin.

As for placenames, there are relatively few CJ inspired placenames in Southeast Alaska as compared to the southern NW coast. Most places were given adaptations of Tlingit names, like Skagway, Ketchikan, Stikine River, etc., or they were given completely novel English (e.g. Chatham Strait), French (Port Beaucleric), or Spanish (Boca de Quadra) names by the early explorers, or novel Russian ones (Chichagof Island) by the colonials. Some places are actually literal translations from Tlingit, like Basket Bay. In fact, the only CJ name I can think of off the top of my head is Meyers Chuck. BTW, chuck in Southeast Alaska seems to have meant an enclosed salt water area, particularly a brackish tideland or estuary, rather than its meaning of any general water feature as in the south.

Needless to say, if you do come across any other placenames in Alaska, particularly southeast Alaska, which seem to be CJ derived but of which you’re unsure, don’t hesitate to send me a message. I’d be happy to look them up with what materials I have. — Jéioosh 06:38, 20 August 2006 (UTC)