Rudolf Wickberg: Ett blandspråk i nordamerikanska vestern
This looks like quite good Chinook Jargon information (it might help answer a recent question about how Scandinavians pronounced their CJ), but I’ll need a friend to translate it from this Swedish:
The example phrases are the giveaway that this article is based on Horatio Hale’s important U.S. Exploring Expedition report of 1846.
Here is a poorly OCR’ed grab of the text:
Rudolf Wickberg: Ett blandspråk i nordamerikanska western. I
Det språk, som talas af de i Förenta Staternas vester kring Columbiafloden boende Chinook-indianerna, lär vara så svårt, att främlingar sällan inhemta detsamma. Behofvet af ett meddelelsemedel mellan å ena sidan dessa indianer och å. den andra engelsk- och fransk-talande jägare och köpmän har emellertid gifvit upphof till ett i flere afseenden märkligt blandspråk, den s. k. Ckinook-jargonen. Dennas material, som helt naturligt blott omfattar uttryck för det alldagliga lifvets enkla förhållanden, utgöres af omkring 250 enkla ord, som hemtats ur de olika språken i följande proportion:
Ckinook-språket: omkring 100 (60 nämen, 33 pronominal-ord, 5 verb, l nomen-verb). Ex. мыши (fågel), kanëm (kanot), kwék-kwek (onomatcp. = and), müs-müs (buffel), nüa (moder), pïlpïl (blod, röd), siks (vän), врак (blå).
n, e, eng. j utbytts mot resp. t, р, k, l, w, s, tsj. _ Det franska näsljudet har bortfallit eller blifvit n. Ex. ses i de engelska och franska länorden. Sprákbyggnaclen är, sâsom man kan vänta, af enklaste slag. Inga ningar firmas. Undnntngsvis uppträder Chinook-sprâkets plur.-änd. -uks i det stelnade ordet Pasat-aks == fransmän. För öfrigt utmärkes plur. ofte genom kata = mänga. _ I allmänhet ingen artikel; stundom doek Chin. ökok (denne). _ Genetiv-fórhällandet uttryckes genom ordfóljden, t. ex. kata nem тайга papa? = ’hvad är din faders пашп?’ — Komparativen uttryckes genom omskrifning sälunda: zoek matka skukam kakwa naz’ka = ’icke du stark som jeg’, d. ä. ’jeg är sterkere ¿in du’. _ Snperlativen omskrifves med adverb: harias claman okok kanem = ’(mycket ватты) äldst (är) den kanoten’. Äfven genom sterkere betoning kan begreppet förstärkas: hates (med längt utdragen slutstafvelse) = ’utomordentligt ster’. _ I räkneorden räder decimal-systemet. _ Intet relativ-pronomen: kah okok samön тай/ш wawa [си/ара naz’ka = 7hvilken den lax du telar (от) för luigip7 Stnndom användes dock fräge-pronomen säsom sädant: шей; naz’ka kömataks ¿kata matka wawa = ’ej jeg Готы hvad du säger’. _ Olika tempus uttryckas, om sä behöfves, genom adverb. Stundom bildas dock futurum genom omskrifning med t’il’kéh = önska: naz’ka papa t-ukeh memelast = ’min fader skall dö’. _ Intet verb ’vara7 ñnnes. _ Endast en preposition: kwápa eller kwapá (= till, for, vid, i o. s. и), men äfven denne kan i allmänhet utelemnas. _ Vilkorskonjunktion är pos = eng. suppose. Esatas Tegnér: De semtttska sprakens attryck för begreppet son,
Here is my rough translation:
The language spoken by the Chinook Indians, living west of the Columbia river, is said to be so difficult that outsiders rarely acquire it. However, the need for a means of communication between on the one hand these Indians and the English- or French-speaking traders on the other has given rise to a in many respects peculiar mixed langauge, the so-called Chinook Jargon.
Its material, quite naturally only comprising expressions for basic everyday life, is made up of about 250 simple words taken from the various languages in about the following proportions: Chinook: 100 (60 nouns, 33 pronouns, 5 verbs, 1 noun-verb) Examples: [and these weords are clearly incorrecly OCR-ed, but the meanings given are ‘bird’, ‘canoe’, ‘duck’, buffalo’, mother’, ‘blood’, friend’ and ‘blue’]
[The next section begins abruptly]
… and English j is replaced by t, p, k, l, w, s, tsj respectively. The French nasal has disappeared or become n. Examples can be seen in the English and French loan words. The grammar is, as one might expect, of the most simple kind. There are no endings. Exceptionally, the Chinook plural ending -uks appears in the fossilised word pasat-aks = Frenchmen. Otherwise, plural is often indicated by means of kata = many.
There is normally no article, though Chinook okok ‘this’ is sometimes used. Genitive relations are expressed by means of word order, e.g. kata nem тайга papa? ‘What is your father’s name?’. Comparatives are expressed by circumlocutions, thus: zoek matka skukam kakwa naz’ka ‘not you strong as I’, i.e. I am stronger than you. Superlatives are made by means of adverbs: harias claman okok kanem = ‘much old is this canoe’. Stronger stress can also intensify the concept: hates (with lengthened final syllable) = ‘very big’.
The numerals use the decimal system.
No relative pronoun: kah okok samön тай/ш wawa [си/ара naz’ka = which salmon [rest of the sentence illegible]
Sometimes, though, an interrogative pronoun is used for this purpose: шей; naz’ka kömataks ¿kata matka wawa = ‘not I understand what you say’
Various tenses may be expressed, if necessary, through adverbs.
Sometimes, though, the future is made by circumlocution: t’il’kéh = to wish: naz’ka papa t-ukeh memelast = ’my father is gouing to die’.
There is no verb ‘to be’
Only one preposition: kwápa or kwapá (= to, for, in, etc), but even this can usually be left out.
The conditional conjunction is pos = Eng. suppose.
[END OF TRANSLATION]
I have seen occasional mentions of CJ in Swedish press of the time, but so far as I can recall, the reports are based on printed materials rather than personal experiences. So they presumably don’t tell us much about a “Scandinavian accent” in CJ.
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I was just leaving Copenhagen when I read this piece and promised to give myself some de-jetlag time before trying to eke out that text in “New Norse”. Glad that Mikael jumped in. (And Hi to you, Mikael, after all these years.)
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