1894: A child prodigy of Chinook Writing, tattling at Spahomin, BC
In the northern dialect, we have this account of an anonymous kid who just couldn’t resist expressing himself in Chinook Writing:
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Iht son tanas son, iht
‘One day in the morning, a’tanas man ilo shako kopa styuil,
young man didn’t come to prayers,’pi ilo iaka tomtom shako ashnu
‘and he didn’t think to come kneel’kopa wach man. Pus shako sitkom
‘for the watchman (as punishment). Come noon,’son: kanawi tilikom shako kopa
‘everyone came to’likatishisam pi klaska nanish
‘catechism session and saw’kopa blu pipa iaka nim ukuk tanas
‘on the blue paper (used for Chinook Writing classes) the name of that young’man: klunas klaksta tanas man
‘man; who knows which boy’mamuk tsim iaka nim pi wiht iaka
‘wrote his name and also wrote,’tsim: Ikta mamuk iaka lisi tomtom,
‘ “Why is he lazy-hearted?’Ikta ilo iaka aiak mamuk ashnu?
‘Why doesn’t he hurry up and kneel?” ’
— from “Kamloops Wawa” #113 [b] (February 1894), page 22
