Monthly Archive: January, 2020

Wait, wait — I have ideas about “wait”!

“Possible maybe, definite might, most likely never!” — Hugo Largo, “Halfway Knowing“

HMCS Nootka

In the Canadian uniformed services, you sometimes find mottos in Chinuk Wawa… …Here’s yet another for our collection. Quoting from Wikipedia: HMCS Nootka was a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian… Continue reading

1907: “Naika thlosh” — Father Le Jeune incognito?

A reprinted BC article on Chinook Jargon is mostly old news, but there’s one excellent & genuine item in it…

LBDB: Prose, not lyrics (Part 5)

Today, in our examination of Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett’s rusty pioneer Chinook, let’s look at her contribution to a popular genre…

How many commandments is this, total? :) (10 Commandments, Part 2)

Part 1 (in effect) of this mini-series of multiple 10 Commandments was Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett’s, as presented in her little-known Chinuk Wawa dictionary.

1870: Discoveries confirmed, discoveries added

A territorial travelogue tells us a tiny tidbit or two of the Jargon. Some is new news!

1893: Newly discovered PNW-isms?

A passing mention of Chinuk Wawa “iktas” in a popular geography/mineralogy magazine article, by a territorial Judge and important collector of linguistic data in the Northwest, leads an editor to comment…

1892 California CPE: Bathed in blood (No Jesus here)

One of the Facebook “Chinook Jargon” group members from Grand Ronde commented how weird the Christian hymn “Are You Washed in Jesus’ Blood” sounds from a Native perspective…

LBDB: Prose, not lyrics (Part 4)

Another LBDB text!

1898: Chinuk Wawa in a Stó:lō hymn book (part 3)

What I’m learning in working on this mini-series is, each song is requiring quite a bit of commentary…