“The Book of a Thousand Tongues”
Senior Chinook Jargon scholar and Saturday Zoom group participant, Dr. Jay Powell, told us an interesting tidbit…
Jay mentioned that in the 1960s in New York City, he had done some work for the folks behind the “Book of a Thousand Words.”
That’s a collection showing Bible passages in a large number of the world’s languages. It’s gone through many editions over the years.
I was pleased when I tracked down one version of it, and found the CHINOOK JARGON entry:
“Kewa klaxta mamook ikta Saghalie Tyee tikke, yaka nika ow, pe yaka nika mamma.”
(Literally: ‘For whoever does what God wants, he is my brother, and she is my mother.’ — Compare an English version of Mark 3:35, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”)
This is from the 1912 “St Marks Kloosh Yiem” published by BC Methodist missionaries.
I admit that I have had mainly critical things to say about that particular translated publication, but the above isolated passage works quite well!
