Monthly Archive: August, 2019

‘Flag’ in Tsimshian & hidden Chinook Jargon (and English) (and Salish)

Sometimes you spot one odd-looking thread sticking out, pull on it, and find it was an important part of the cloth.

Babies

Chinuk Wawa kept on making ‘babies’.

1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 3 of 3)

Chinook Jargon turns out to be very good at describing disasters and scaring listeners.

1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 2 of 3)

It gets worse…

1904: Wreck of the Clallam (Part 1 of 3)

If you’re looking for shocking news & amazing Chinuk Wawa reading practice, pick up a copy of Kamloops Wawa… Today we’ll start another mini-series that’s hard to look away from. The editor of Kamloops Wawa,… Continue reading

The drunkard’s walk, from Chinuk Wawa to Upper Chehalis

Stuff keeps turning up, somehow.

1854: The Chenook Navy

Time was when Chinuk Wawa got your fairly far in Northern California…

Indian murderer’s trial at Whatcom, 1892

Does this tell us something about people’s perceptions of the Jargon as sometimes slippery?

1892: Nearly all Tlingits speak Chinuk Wawa

In debunking a rumor that the missionary Sheldon Jackson had been murdered by Alaska Natives, we learn a huge linguistic reason why it’s preposterous.

1897, (New) Metlakatla: The Indians here wake cumtux chinook wahwah

As the “Clondyke” mania raged, a well-prepared goldrusher incidentally stopping off at Metlakatla, Alaska was surprised Chinuk Wawa was useless there.