Leland’s funny irony
Charles G. Leland inserted fake cussin’ in his otherwise fairly accurate 1888 article “Der Chinook-Jargon“.
Charles G. Leland inserted fake cussin’ in his otherwise fairly accurate 1888 article “Der Chinook-Jargon“.
In our Facebook “Chinook Jargon” group the other day, Greg Cleveland quoted his late grandfather as addressing him and other kids decades ago with “Howh klat’-a-wa.”
Languages of the northern Pacific Northwest coast have an odd form of word for ‘cat’, in all 3 unrelated language families:
In BC, Chinook Jargon stayed in use more vigorously and longer than it did south of the border.
My thanks go to reader Darrin Brager for inspiring this post.
As a seasonal bonus for you folks, here’s a look back at the Chinook Jargon of Christmas past!
Here’s another fun Christmas-related bit of Chinuk Wawa, courtesy of reader Darrin Brager!
“It is Christmas Day on the cattle ranch at the Malheur agency…” So starts Part IV of a serially published piece of post-frontier cowboy fiction by the renowned Owen Wister.
Wikipedia tells us “Andy Paull, (Andrew Paull, Xwechtáal, Xwupúkinem, Quitchtaal) (February 6, 1892 – July 28, 1959) was a Squamish leader, activist, coach, and lawyer.”
North Yakima, Washington, was a feisty boomtown in its day, and it had an aptly-titled newspaper to go with that attitude.