Language in Petersburg, Alaska

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Therese, and I’m calling from Juneau, Alaska.

Hi, Therese, welcome.

What can we do for you?

Well, when I moved to Alaska like 35 years ago, I moved to a small community, Petersburg, to the southeast. And it was a summer place used by the Tlingit people, got settled by Norwegian people, and it was a strong fishing community.

And so my question is, like, I would go down the street and you hear, you go in Ula Bakken, or, oh, I got corked on the last bottle of milk, or didn’t talk, or, you know, there was just this mixture of, you know, Norwegian and English and sometimes native words and fishing terms. And I wondered if there was an overall term for, you know, when that occurs in a community. I mean, I know it’s not the only community in the world that happens, but I’m just kind of wondering if there’s a term for it.

Yeah, but I’ve got to ask you, can you explain all the things that you said? What was the first thing that you said before you said about being corked?

Oh, corked. It’s a fishing term. It comes out of the gill netters. And they set drift gill nets, and the top line of the net is a cork line, and the bottom is a lead line that holds it. So the net stays open, and it drifts with the current. And there’s kind of like a pattern that they use. You know, one guy will set, and then it drifts for a little bit. And then when there’s enough space, another net will be set by a different fisherman. And sometimes somebody takes cuts and they set too close to somebody, so they call it get in court. So that’s one of the terms.

So they’re taking somebody else’s catch more or less.

Well, they’re kind of interfering with somebody’s ability to get a good catch. That’s my understanding of it. I trolled, so I don’t know exactly how they set their nets, but I do know that that was the process.

And you said something, you were talking about walking down the street and you’ll hear something, and then you said something before court.

Oh, Eulabaking?

Yeah, what’s that?

Eulabaking is a Christmas celebration. They do it Christmas Eve. And in Norway, you would have gone from farm to farm and people would leave food out on their table. And in Petersburg, they go business to business. And it’s a very social thing. Everybody goes, kids, dogs, grandparents, it doesn’t matter. And traditionally you eat Norwegian food, you might have an adult beverage along the way. So it’s very fun.

So we’re talking Norwegian and English and Tlingit and fishing argo and other things all kind of used on a daily basis. Rolled into one.

Rolled into one, yeah. So this does happen around the world, as you guessed. Anytime you’ve got a bunch of different people with a common interest living in the same locations, you do get an interchange of words. And it’s contact language is what it is. And if it happens long enough, then you can get a permanent transfer and things can develop.

One of the things that can happen is you can get a trade language. And there have been some known in the Pacific Northwest, as a matter of fact, where a language developed that was used amongst people who traded and that was only used for trade. Where they would come together for agricultural products and fish products and different kinds of things and use it just as long as they were doing commerce together, as long as they were doing business. But it wasn’t something they used on a day-to-day basis in their homes.

Then you can also get pigeons, if it happens long enough, where two or more languages can combine different features, grammatical features and lexical features, and develop something more sophisticated with rules that can be passed along from parents to children. And it can become an actual language. And these can survive generations and be something that can be passed through time and history and be cataloged and join the larger human family of languages. And that’s spelled P-I-D-G-I-N.

That’s right. Not like the bird.

Is that, they refer to that in Hawaii sometimes?

Yeah, that’s right. There is a Hawaiian pigeon, which is a mix of the original Hawaiian language and English.

Well, I was just curious because, I mean, that was one of the things that first struck me as a young, you know, just out of college going there and hearing this and like going, wow, you know, it’s kind of interesting. I came from New England and we have our own little set of weird words, too. But I just kind of wondered how that came about and how it was referred to.

Yeah, but languages and contact always, they always leave a little bit of each other on each other. And it works both ways. Even a small language surrounded by a larger language will leave a little something behind. It always happens if there’s a sufficient length of time. Just a little bit around. Sometimes it’s just food words. Sometimes it’s commerce words. Sometimes it’s family terms. But there’s just a little something left behind.

I thought it enriched the community.

I agree. I think it does. And it leaves a flavor. I have to say, I appreciate your field report. I feel like you are a field worker for us and you have delivered a solid field report from Alaska.

Well, thank you. I’m glad I could help.

Thank you so much, Therese.

Oh, thank you. This was Skookum.

Yes, it is. It’s Skookum, that’s right.

Have a great day.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, what are the words and phrases and idioms that flavor your part of the world? Let us know. 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.