1911: Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) audio in Chinuk Wawa
Hey readers! Here’s a crowdsourcing challenge for you!
Thanks to Alex Code and to Q’alis, one of the earliest existing audio recordings of Chinook Jargon came my way. I have to share this!
It’s a 1911 wax-cylinder recording of what might be a Christian song, sung by Nimíipuu people, recorded by tribal member Sam Morris. I can tell that Chinuk Wawa is being used — can you make out the words?
Many minds make brilliant work.
There’s a YouTube video of it:
And here’s a link to the Sam Morris Collection, about 2 hours of material that he recorded over a century ago. Maybe more Jargon will turn up there, as you listen through it?
I think the link to the video got left out there. The text is blue, but there’s no hyperlink.
In the intro I hear:
(o?) naika kumtuks
(alta?) (saiyaa?) ilahi naika chako
naika chako nanich kopa (krismas?)
alta naika shanti
I can’t make out much of the song at all. Maybe a haiyoo and a nesaika here and there, but not convinced by any of it.
The outro is definitely chinook but super garbled.
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naika wawa mirsi, Alex, I’ve now fixed the link!
Dave R
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