PNW tribe names from Métis French
Here as usual I’ll refer to the mixed Cree-French language Michif for Métis French word forms.
Monthly Archive: June, 2022
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1894: “Hebloo tenas” song, and liberties taken
Times change…It’s incredible how many times we’ve found that the songs folks felt like translating into Chinook Jargon were racist minstrel tunes!
So many Métis words in interior PNW languages (Part 2: Interior northern Dene, far limits of Chinuk Wawa zone)
READER CHALLENGE: read on to see if you have ideas about some French source words! I’ve written that certain entire families, and types, of languages are fairly impervious to external influence.
James R. Anderson’s dad’s Métis plant names
James R. Anderson, a noted botanical authority in British Columbia, was the son of fur-trade era Chinook Jargon authority Alexander Caulfield Anderson.
Earlyish recognition of Chinook-Chehalis Jargon, plus…
One of the few published mentions of the pidgin Haida of the early Northwest Coast maritime fur trade…
John Tod, Red River Métis, + New Caledonia (BC)
(Image credit: “Career of a Scotch Boy“) Active contributor LeAnn Riding got me thinking about BC Métis people, when she posted on our old CHINOOK listserv (remember listservs?) — “A while ago I… Continue reading
Pre-1907: An elder’s hypothesis
In a 2000 discussion on our old CHINOOK listserv, founder of modern Chinuk Wawa studies, Dr. Henry Zenk, shared a historical quotation from the Grand Ronde, Oregon, area:
‘Silverside salmon’ (coho) in Shoalwater Bay Chinuk Wawa
Add this to your Jargon dictionaries.
1892: Halo weight chickamen stop still
Recognizable in today’s clipping is some normal BC Chinook Jargon.
A “CJ” loan in Klamath tells us something more ancient
I was using M.A.R. Barker’s “Klamath Dictionary” (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1963) for some research — resulting in one article already on this site — when a really obvious loan word… Continue reading