Boas 1892: Many discoveries in a short article (Part 8: ‘grandchild’)

In Franz Boas’s neglected masterpiece, the one-page article “The Chinook Jargon“, we learn another Salish-sourced word…

1876: “Snass” in the classical Chinook

Kind of unusual to see “cole snass” ‘snow’ abbreviated to “snass” (‘rain’)!

Didactic dialogues in CW dictionaries, Part 4F (Gibbs 1863 ex phrases/sentences) — a deep dive!

The sixth part our mini-mini-series on George Gibbs’s 1863 example sentences of Chinuk Wawa takes you to the water, and drops you in. Let’s go deep!

Miller 1999 “Chehalis-Area Traditions” and Métis people of southwest Washington

Really well-done ethnographies of PNW tribal cultures will provide us with endless amounts of material to translate into Chinuk Wawa.

Lempfrit’s legendary, long-lost linguistic legacy (Part 7)

More discoveries!

“Otter” words come from Fort Vancouver

There is one widespread SW Washington Salish word for ‘otter’ — and then there’s also “skaləmən”.

The Mission Field and “Chinhook” (Part 5 of 6)

Another British Protestant missionary to Vancouver Island, BC, in the frontier era, reports Chinuk Wawa in use a number of times…

Native weather forecast/prophecy

What’s up with that? Settlers just loved to ask Native elders for a longterm weather forecast…

Blankenship, “Early History of Thurston County, Washington” (Part 1)

Sometimes a dollar spent on a book pays off many times over!

How the Kaoham Shuttle relates to Chinook Jargon

Why is a local railway train between Lillooet and Seton Lake First Nation, British Columbia named the Kaoham Shuttle?