Covered

Verb Forms and a Noun: It may be that all three forms, [ dlúgwɛʽ ], [ dlúkwaʽ ], and the seemingly different word [ dlúgwɛtʰ ] which we hear between them, are slightly different forms of the same verb which is a member of a family of related words. Listen to the interview segments “Sit” and “Sit Down”, where the verb is [ dlú·gwa ]. That is the way that we hear it from Lolly Metcalf. Annie Miner Peterson’s version of that word is [ dlú·ɢ̣wa ], IPA [ ˈdluˑɢwa ]. That word means not only ‘sit’ and ‘sit down’, but also ‘to live somewhere, to reside somewhere’. Then listen to the Milluk word meaning ‘chair’ which is in the interview segment “Chair”, where our phonetic transcription is [ dlukdlúk ]. That is Lolly’s one time saying the word. There is no word in the Milluk texts which is translated as ‘chair’ and Jacobs evidently did not get a Milluk word meaning ‘chair’ from Annie Miner Peterson otherwise.

The Interview Segment “Covers”: Of course, a related Milluk word to the one in this interview segment “Covered” is the Milluk word in the interview segment “Covers”. There, however, the vowel in the first syllable in a schwa /ə/, rather than the vowel /u/, long or short.

Instant Phonetic Englishization: dloo_gweh, and dloo_kwah.

Words Meaning ‘Covered’ in the Milluk Texts: When we turn to the Milluk texts, we get to the English word ‘covered’. In dictating the Milluk text titled “The trickster person who made the country”, which is found in Jacobs’ (1940) volume “Coos Myth texts”, Mrs. Peterson said:

| wí·‿dlukʷdɛ·t‿nantɬ | ‘You will have to be covered up’.

| wí·–dlʊkʷdɛ·t–nantɬ | ‘you’ll have to be covered up’.

The second version of the line of text here is in Jacobs’ handwriting, with the line’s handwritten translation. The handwritten version can be found in Jacobs’ field notebook 96, notebook page 155. In Jacobs’ (1940) published volume “Coos Myth Texts”, the line of text is in Jacobs’ paragraph 12 of the text. All of paragraph 12 is on page 189.

In the same paragraph in the published version of the text and on the same notebook page in the field notebook, there is also the text line:

| tsú‿dlúkʷda | ‘and (the young fellows) covered him over.’

| tsú–dlʊ́kʷda | ‘Then they covered him there (the young fellows)’

Again, the second version of the line of text here is in Jacobs’ handwriting, to be found in Jacobs’ field notebook 96, notebook page 155, where the translation is the one which is Jacobs’ handwritten translation,. In his handwritten phonetic transcriptions, Jacobs makes a phonetic distinction between the phonetic vowel [ ʊ ] and the phonetic vowel [ u ], a matter of some interest to us here as we listen to the Milluk words that Lolly said when asked for a Milluk translation of the English word ‘covered’.

Apparently Three Different Words: In between [ dlúgwɛʽ ] and [ dlúkwaʽ ], we hear the word [ dlúgwɛtʰ ], but Lolly seems to cut that word short, as if it is another word, not exactly the word that she is trying to say. It seems though that the first word that she says in this interview segment is also a slightly different word than either of the other two. She seems most confident about the third form that she says, which is [ dlúkwaʽ ]. One problem here for Lolly in this interview segment is that the English word ‘covered’ has more than one sense. We cannot be sure which sense or senses of the word English word ‘covered’ that Lolly was thinking of when she said what we hear in this interview segment.