VOVA!
Among the few (but increasing number of) websites where you can practice your Chinook Jargon, is VOVA. That’s the Vocal & Verbal Arts Archives. They’re a nonprofit working for language documentation and revitalization;… Continue reading
Monthly Archive: April, 2013
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Northwest nerdery: Soccer + Chinook Jargon
Northwest nerdery: soccer + Chinook Jargon… Portland Timbers fans holding up banners during the national anthem before a match: “TIMBERS HIAS SKOOKUM” (it’s a chant, too) “WHITECAPS HIAS CULTUS” “SOUNDERS HIAS MESACHIE” “TIMBERS… Continue reading
Chinook Waw-Waw revitalization (100 years ago)
Chinook Waw-Waw clubs are being formed for its study with a view to its perpetuation. –from a book review of Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett’s “Chinook-English Songs”, in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Sunday morning, March 7, 1915,… Continue reading
Cruisings in the Cascades
Looking through an antiquarian bookseller’s website, I spied a neat-sounding book that was new to me. They wanted a shocking price, but Google Books had it as a free ebook 🙂 Turns out… Continue reading
Sex! Or, why is the “M-word” taboo?
In Chinook Jargon dialects, the word “moosum” (“sleep”) is more or less tabooed. In some, which I associate with the Coast and which I tend to perceive as older, there’s a phrase “tenas moosum”.… Continue reading
Thank you, Public Salon!
I want to put in a note of thanks to a remarkable cultural institution that I’ve recently become acquainted with: Sam Sullivan’s Public Salon in Vancouver, BC. Last week, I spoke at the… Continue reading
He expected Chinook Jargon, he got pidgin Spanish?!
This anecdote from south of the known region that Chinook Jargon was used in (Sacramento, CA) unexpectedly yielded what looks like pidgin Spanish being used by Native people there. The gentleman in question… Continue reading
“Jumper is Chinook for thief”
I’ve written about the lexical contributions of Chinook Jargon to our Pacific Northwest English. But here’s a piece about English speakers’ fairly early view of CJ as a kind of slang of its… Continue reading