1911: Dominion Day (Canada Day) invitation in Jargon
Identifiably Settler-style Chinuk Wawa augments some poetic excesses in English, in today’s “Chinook invitations” entry.
The first known flag of the Dominion of Canada (1868), flying in Barkerville, BC (image credit: Reddit)
The English-language portion of this excerpt is explicitly British in its appeal to BC folks’ patriotism, invoking Scotland (“brithers ‘a[ll]”). I confess I don’t entirely grasp “shake your black and tans”, but I know the “Black and Tans” were the imperial police force in occupied Ireland.
Here’s the paragraph I’m focusing on today:
Come country cousins and brithers’a;
come and celebrate, associate and cogi-
tate, Ladies join your lily white hands,
gents shake your black aud tans in this
grand reunion on the glorious natal day
of fair Canada, empire’s jewel! Come
tillicums, konawa ikta skookum kopa
Princeton, Jimhilkameen, hyas kloosh
chaco kopa Domlnion Day. Hoop la !
— from “Grand Celebration”, in the Princeton (BC) Similkameen Star of June 28, 1911, page 1, column 1
The Chinook Jargon segment is:
…tillicums, konawa ikta skookum kopa Princeton, Jimhilkameen,
…tílixam-s, kʰánawi-íkta skúkum kʰupa prínstən*, djimhíkamin*,
…friend-s, every-thing excellent at Princeton, Jimhilkameen,
‘friends, everything’s going to be wonderful at Princeton in the “Jim-Hill-kameen”,’
hyas kloosh chaco kopa Domlnion Day.
hayas-łúsh cháku kʰupa domínyən*-déy*.
very-good come to Dominion-Day.
‘be sure to come to Dominion Day.’
