Slow? Pokey? Further temptations in etymologizing ‘turtle’

Slow? Pokey? Further temptations in etymologizing ‘turtle’

From the Grand Ronde Tribes 2012 dictionary of Chinuk Wawa, you can learn a word for ‘turtle’, íɬaqwá.  That word comes from Lower Chinookan í-ɬax̣ʷa, also meaning ‘turtle’. Pokey? Nope. (Image credit: Freepik) The alternation /x̣ʷ ~ qʷ/ is typical of southwestern Washington, where it also occurs in the (technically) unrelated Salish languages, such as Lower Chehalis. (Which is a major ancestor of Chinuk Wawa.) Slow? It’s impossible for me to…