Salmon names

In Alaska there are five extant species of anadromous Pacific salmon, all of the Oncorhynchus (Suckley 1861) genus. The genus name is from Greek ὄγκος ónkos “bend, hook” and ῥύγχος rhýnkhos “snout, beak”, referring to the hooked upper jaw or “kype” of breeding males. The scientific names of the five species are O. tshawytscha, O. nerka, O. kisutch, O. keta, and O. gorbuscha (all Walbaum 1792). There are some interesting linguistic facts about their names which I’ve been inspired to post about here.

First, in Tlingit they’re called, in order: tʼá /tʼá/, g̱aat /qaːt/, lʼook /ɬʼuːk/ (cognate with Proto-Athabaskan *ɬuːqʼə ‘fish’, e.g. Denaʼina ɬiqʼa, Tsuutʼina ɬúkʼá, Navajo ɬóːʔ), téelʼ /tʰíːɬʼ/, and cháasʼ /tʃʰáːsʼ/. The generic term for ‘fish’ which by default refers to any kind of salmon is x̱áat /χáːt/.

The scientific names all come from Russian, and were originally given by Johann Julius Walbaum during his time in the Russian Far East. The name O. tshawytscha is from Russian чавы́ча /tɕaˈvɨtɕa/ which is itself from Itelʼmen čevičev. O. nerka is in Russian не́рка /ˈnʲerka/, but in Siberian dialects ня́рка /ˈnʲarka/, and which appears to be from Proto-Samoyedic *nʸʌrkə, compare Nganasan nʸorə. O. kisutch is Russian ки́жуч /ˈkʲiʐutɕ/ but in Siberian dialects ки́зуч /ˈkʲizutɕ/, coming from Itelʼmen kizuez; the dialectal form is the source of the scientific name. O. keta is particularly interesting: in Russian it is ке́та /ˈkʲeta/ but this is again not native; rather, the source is probably Evenki keːta ‘O. keta’ or perhaps Even qæta ‘dead salmon after spawning’ (unrelatedly, Tlingit also has xein /xeːn/ ‘spawned-out salmon’ < Pre-Tlingit *xayn, cognate with Eyak xaːnih; also cf. PA *xʸaːn ‘old age’, cognate with Tlingit shaan /ʃaːn/ ‘old, elderly’ < Pre-Tlingit *šaʻn) both of which are themselves probably from Chukchi-Koryak, e.g. Chukchi qetaqet ‘O. keta’. The Russian for O. gorbuscha is simply горбу́ша /gorˈbuʂa/ derived from горб /gorb/ ‘hump’ and describing the pronounced hump that develops on the backs of males during spawning.

The English names are a bit more confusing. All five species occur along the Northwest Coast (NWC) of North America down as far south as the Columbia River and some as far south as San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River (e.g. O. keta). They also all occur on the Alaskan coast as far north as the Bering Sea, and some as far as the Arctic Ocean (e.g. O. gorbuscha and O. keta to the Lena and Mackenzie Rivers). Because English speaking colonists met with the salmon at different times and different locations, a variety of names have proliferated for them. I will try to sort them out a bit here, but the majority of my experience is in Alaska and so my knowledge about name distribution patterns is only tentative for the southern NWC. Fortunately it is Alaska that most people know little about, and I’m sure others can work out the geographic distribution down where the populations are greater and there are more people inclined to investigate.

In Southcentral Alaska, and typically throughout most of mainland Alaska, the five species are most often called: O. tshawytscha ‘king’, O. nerka ‘red’, O. kisutch ‘silver’, O. keta ‘dog’, and O. gorbuscha ‘pink’. These are all relatively transparent names. ‘King’ is obviously because it is the biggest and most prized, ‘red’ is from both the prominent red color of the skin during spawning as well as the darker orange-red color of the flesh, ‘silver’ is from the bright color of the skin, ‘dog’ comes from the pronounced teeth on males which are reminiscent of the canine teeth of dogs, and ‘pink’ is from the pale pink or pink-orange color of the flesh. This group of names can be loosely called the “color names” for the fish, and use of the full set is characteristic of southcentral Alaskans as well as many (most?) people of interior and southwestern Alaska. I can’t really comment on use in the Arctic since I have little experience up there, but I expect that white people would use the same names as found in e.g. Anchorage and Fairbanks.

In Southeast Alaska O. nerka is almost always ‘sockeye’ instead, which derives from a reanalysis of the loan /ˈsʌkai̯/ (Goode 1887 Amer. Fishes: “‘Suk-kegh’, ‘Saw-quai’, or ‘Suck-eye’”) that comes from Halkomelem sθə́kəy̓. This term is found along the coast down to Oregon. Although the term ‘kokanee’ is current in the southern NWC for landlocked specimens, I have not heard it used in Alaska but then again I have not done much fishing in the interior. The term ‘sockeye’ is not uncommon elsewhere in Alaska, but sport fishermen in southcentral Alaska seem to use ‘red salmon’ more often. The species name is never used in English, except perhaps among biologists who are strange people anyway.

Also in Southeast Alaska O. kisutch is referred to as ‘coho’, a term with an uncertain etymology. The OED2 gives a citation from the British Colonist (Victoria) in 1859: “the genus known by the Indian name of coocouse”, and from the Mainland Guardian (New Westminster) in 1869: “The second of salmon in class is the Cohose”, so presumably there is some Salishan or possibly Wakashan, Chimakuan, or Chinookan language from whence this name came. As with ‘sockeye’, the term ‘coho’ is prevalent from Southeast Alaska down the coast to Oregon. This fish also serves as a major crest of the Tlingit Lʼuknax̱.ádi /ɬʼuknaχʔáti/ clan, often called the ‘Coho People’ or ‘Coho Clan’ in English. They are named after a stream south of Klawock which is called Lʼuknáx̱ /ɬʼuknáχ/, itself named after the fish. The Tlingit name of Deep Bay is Lʼugunáx̱ /ɬʼukunáχ/ which is probably the same name. Use of ‘coho’ is in my experience characteristically southeastern, contrasting with the rest of Alaska where ‘silver’ is much more common.

O. keta is often known as ‘chum’ which comes from Chinook Jargon tsəm or čəm meaning ‘mark, spot’. It is more commonly known also as ‘dog salmon’ in Southeast Alaska, but this name is also common in the rest of Alaska as well. I don’t know if ‘dog salmon’ is common along the southern NWC or not. The ‘Dog Salmon Clan’ of the Tlingit is named after this fish, called in Tlingit Lʼeeneidí /ɬʼiːneːtí/ or Lʼeineidí /ɬʼeːneːtí/, derived from a stream called Téelʼ Héeni /tʰíːɬʼ híːni/ ‘dog salmon stream’ thus Teelʼheeneidí /tʰiːɬʼhiːneːtí/ ‘dog salmon stream people’. The salmon marketing industry has the inane name ‘Silverbrite™©®’ used to market O. keta as a cheaper alternative to O. kisutch; I have never heard the name used seriously, only derisively in reference to marketing. It obviously conflicts with the name ‘silver’ for O. kisutch, and hence would never be adopted where ‘silver’ is used. Presumably ‘chum’ and ‘dog’ are just not pleasant enough for the delicate ears of North Americans outside of its range. Rumour has it that some people refer to this fish as ‘keta’ after the scientific name, but I’ve never heard of this before and I suspect that it is again restricted to those crazy biologists.

O. gorbuscha is often known as ‘humpy’ which is widespread in Alaska, with no particular geographic emphasis, although ‘pink’ is the common alternative in southcentral Alaska (but cf. Humpy’s in Anchorage, an excellent bar/pub downtown). This name is essentially the same as in Russian, though it is probably not a calque into English but rather an independent invention from the very obvious dorsal hump of spawning males. It is not generally called ‘humpback’ since this conflicts with the humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski 1781), which is more often just called ‘humpback’ in casual speech rather than ‘humpback whale’. I’ve never heard the species name used in English, although of course it is natural in Russian.

The name ‘Chinook salmon’ for O. tshawytscha is largely unused in Alaska aside from immigrants from the southern NWC, and for biologists who often use English names from outside Alaska due to their use in the scientific literature. Some Alaskans scoff at the name, in fact, considering it a mark of the cheechako or newcomer. It does see occasional use in Southeast Alaska, but again this is probably due to immigrants from further south. I do not recall hearing it from any Tlingit elders speaking in English, although younger Tlingits from Down South may use it due to exposure in Washington and Oregon. The name does seem to be relatively common the further south one travels, though of course I haven’t done any dialectal research to confirm this. Other terms according to Wikipedia that I have never heard in Alaska are ‘blackmouth’, ‘black’, ‘chub’, ‘hookbill’, ‘quinnat’, ‘spring’, ‘tyee’ (< Chinook Jargon táyi ‘chief, leader’), and ‘winter’. Essentially ‘king’ is by far the norm.

In the words of Forrest DeWitt, “that’s all I’ve got to say for now”. There’s plenty of linguistic fieldwork and bookwork to be done on salmon names in English and other languages, especially concerning the distribution of various terms in the Pacific Northwest both on the coast and in the interior. Both natural and political borders play significant roles, as well as the complex economies surrounding commercial, sport, and subsistence salmon fisheries, and I hope an English dialectologist will look into this area in the near future.

[Information on Russian terms and their etymologies is from Sasha Vovin, with help from the Этимологический словарь русских диалектов Сибири (Etimologicheskij slovarʼ russkix dialektov Sibiri) by A.E. Anikin (1997). Proto-Athabaskan and Eyak data are from various sources, including a manuscript by Jeff Leer (2008). English data and etymologies mostly from the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn.. Biological information is from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game Wildlife Notebook Series as well as from Wikipedia.]

Terminology for indigenous Alaskans

There’s a lot of confusion on the Intertubes about how indigenous people in Alaska should be referred to. I’ll do my small part to clarify this. I write this in several capacities: as a linguist, as a lifelong Alaskan (though temporarily away from my homeland), and as an Alaska Native.

First of all, there’s the cover term “Alaska Native”. This term refers to any person who is a member of one of the indigenous peoples of Alaska. There are a number of legal definitions, for example that defined in ANCSA. The US Census defines it as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples [of Alaska] and who mantains tribal affiliation or community attachment”. Legally, people who are Alaska Native either have one-quarter or more Alaska Native blood, or are enrolled in a federally recognized tribe in Alaska, with the latter taking precedence. The term is sometimes shortened to “Native”, which also shows up in phrases like “Native rights”, “Native sovereignty”, “Native lands”, “Native conveyance”, etc. Note that capitalization is important. The reversed “Native Alaskans” is dispreferred, particularly because it has no legal meaning. The term “Alaskan Native” is sometimes seen, probably because of nasal assimilation in speech, but again this lacks a legal definition. Google unhelpfully merges searches for “Alaskan Native” with “Alaska Native”, but the latter makes up 4.5 million of the 6 million results for the former.

The next highest level of division among Alaska Natives is not legally defined as far as I am aware, but is instead conventional. This is the distinction between “Indian” and “Eskimo”. The term “Indian” includes all Athabaskan groups in addition to the rainforest peoples east of Copper River: Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. The term Eskimo is somewhat more imprecise, because it has both linguistic and cultural definitions which are not identical. Peoples who are definitely included in the Eskimo category are the Iñupiat, Yupʼik, Siberian Yupik (Yuit), Nunivak Cupʼig, and Chevak Cupʼik. The Sugpiaq (Chugachmiut, Prince William Sound & Kenai Peninsula) and Alutiiq (Koniagmiut, Kodiak Archipelago & Alaska Peninsula) of coastal Southcentral Alaska are sometimes included among the Eskimo because their language is closely related to Central Alaskan Yupʼik, however culturally they are more distinct because of their rainforest environment. (The Sugpiaq/Alutiiq are sometimes described with a cover term “Pacific Yupik”, but neither group seems to prefer this label.) The division between Indian and Eskimo leaves out one group, the Aleut, who fit into neither category. To be inclusive, one might say “Eskimo, Aleut, and Indian”.

It must be clarified that in Alaska the term “Eskimo” is not derogatory. This is in contrast to the usual sense in Canada, where Inuit people are often offended by the term. The Canadian attitude has begun to take hold in the more educated populace of the United States, who also refer to Alaskan Eskimo people as “Inuit”. This is a mistake however, because the term “Inuit” in fact includes only the Iñupiat in Alaska, and excludes the Yupʼik and their bretheren. Using the term “Inuit” is thus irritating, and sometimes even offensive, to non-Iñupiat Eskimos in Alaska. Indeed, even the Iñupiat may be irritated by the term “Inuit” because their geographic, cultural, and political distance from the Canadian peoples is great enough that many would rather not be lumped together with them. Thus in Alaska “Eskimo” is a neutral term, and one which is well accepted by the people it describes. In contrast, “Inuit” is misplaced and should generally be avoided.

Below the level of Indian/Eskimo/Aleut, there is another level of cover terms before specific tribes are named. This level is not consistent between the various groups. The Aleut for example consitute one monolithic people, although subdivisions can be found according to region, village, and to include those resident in Russia (the Commander Islands Aleut). Probably the two most common divisions in popular use are the Athabaskan and Yupik, the latter of which is somewhat controversial.

Athabaskans in Alaska constitute a small portion of the Northern Athabaskan peoples whose traditional territories extend as far west as Manitoba and the Northwest Territories where the Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłiné) still dwell, and as far south as the Fraser and Thompson Rivers in British Columbia where the Chilcotin (Tŝilhqotʼin) live and the Nicola once dwelled. In Alaska the term Athabaskan refers to thirteen different tribes who live in the Interior, and all of whom have close linguistic and cultural connections. This term is spelled in a number of different ways, an issue that I wrote about previously.

The Athabaskan group is rather easy, but the Yupik group is harder to define. In one sense the term covers a linguistic group, anyone who speaks a Yupik language. This is at odds with both cultural and geographic definitions, however. Usually the term applies to the Central Alaskan Yupʼik, as well as to the Cupʼig, Cupʼik, and sometimes the Siberian Yupik. Linguistically the Sugpiaq/Alutiiq are included, but culturally and geographically they are very distinct. Also, some Cupʼik and Cupʼig people are vocal about their desire to be distinct from the Yupʼik, and extend this to the term Yupik as well. In general the term is usually taken to mean something like “Eskimo who aren’t Iñupiaq”, always excluding the Aleut and sometimes excluding the Sugpiaq/Alutiiq.

There is no simple term in use that refers to the Indians of Southeast Alaska, which comprises the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. A clumsy phrase “Southeast Alaska Natives” is sometimes used, as are “Southeast People” and rarely “Southeast Indians”. None of these are in widespread use, perhaps because the Tlingit are the dominant population and reference is often made directly to them. The term “Southeasterner” applies to non-Natives as well, and so is not a Native-specific term. One often hears “T&H” used in reference to the governmental entity officially called the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, or CCTHITA. The Tsimshian are not part of this tribal merger because they have the distinction of possessing the sole reservation in Alaska that encompasses Annette Island. Although culturally close to the Tlingit, the Eyak are often excluded from “Southeast Alaska Natives”. Their position at the mouth of the Copper River puts them within the ANCSA region controlled by Chugach Alaska Corp., and so today they are somewhat unfairly lumped together with their historic enemies, the Chugachmiut (Sugpiaq).

Other terminology, mostly pertaining to specific tribes and groups, is fairly well documented. I’m not going to go into those details here, especially since I’d be in unfamiliar territory when it comes to Eskimo subsubgroups. My knowledge of Eskimo culture is largely due to random conversations with people at ANMC, and so doesn’t go very deep. (My Eskimo friends are mostly city folk or townies...)

ATHAPBASCKAN-L

Back in October I started a new mailing list devoted to the Atha[pb]as[ck]an language family and its relatives. It is graciously hosted by the LINGUIST List. There used to be a list called ATHLANG-L but it has been dead for a few years, and I wanted to fill the gap. I sent out an FYI to the LINGUIST List but have only seen about 20 subscribers since. I recently spammed a bunch of folks I know who work on languages in the family, and so the subscription numbers are rising slightly, but I figured I’d advertise it here as well.

The name is a pun on the four spellings of /ˌæ.θəˈbæs.kən/. I put the first pair of letters in reverse alphabetic order, and the second pair in forward alphabetic order. That way nobody can claim my favoritism over any particular spelling. (I have already admitted that I prefer “Athabaskan”, but I’m trying to be fair here.)

So if you’re interested in Atha[pb]as[ck]an languages, Na-Dené languages, Dene-Yeniseic languages, or things related, feel free to subscribe. The list is very low traffic, but I’d like to see more discussion and announcements from people other than myself...

Subscription site

Athabaskan, Athapascan, and everything in between

One of the more annoying things about working in the Na-Dene language family is that nobody can agree on how to spell the name pronounced in English as /æθəˈbæskən/. There are four ways which can be described with this convenient regular expression: Atha[bp]as[ck]an. I was wondering what the popularity of the various spellings was, and of course it came to me to simply ask Google.

The results (29 July 2008):

• about 210,000 for athapascan


• about 206,000 for athabaskan


• about 150,000 for athabascan


• about 77,700 for athapaskan

So it would seem that, at least on teh World Wide Interweb Supertubeway, the most popular spelling of the name is “Athapascan”. This is at odds with my personal choice, which is the second most popular “Athabaskan”, and what I tend to see according to my fallible perception as the most common spelling in linguistics articles.

Notice something interesting about the results: no one spelling is clearly obscure. Certainly “Athapaskan” is less common, but it’s not strongly marginalized in the way that “Klinkit” might be for describing the Tlingit people and language.

The main problem with this variety of spellings is that it impedes searching through databases for information about Athabaskan stuff. If I want to hunt for “Athabaskan verb” in the Library of Congress catalog I have to construct this messy query:

Athabaskan OR Athabascan OR Athapaskan OR Athapascan AND verb

You can imagine that the irritation increases when you’re looking for something complicated like “classificatory verbs OR noun classification OR classifier”. And since search engines don’t usually let you specify levels of nesting, all you can do is hope that it knows what you mean. Your only other option is to repeat the search four different times with all the same keywords except for Atha[bp]as[ck]an.

The original spelling, due to Albert Gallatin, was “Athabascan”. Per Wikipedia,

The word Athabaskan is an anglicized version of the Woods Cree name for Lake Athabasca (aðapaskāw, “[where] there are plants one after another”) in Canada.

In classic Wikipedia fashion, the article goes on to quote Gallatin and references a document which doesn’t appear in its bibliography. It’s probably from Synopsis of the Indian tribes within the United States, Cambridge: University Press, 1836. The title page is online as part of a map collection.