Central-dialect Chinook Jargon as a “pidgincreole”
I’m really just putting up a Post-It™ note about a thought right here, not deeply defending it:
Look, another pidgincreole! (Image credit: Yes Magazine)
Chinook Jargon’s Central dialect (the oldest one, centered on the lower Columbia River), coexisting as it did in pidgin and creole versions, would seem to meet the definition of a “pidgincreole” — rather than just a “pidgin” or “creole” — as:
a former pidgin that has become the main language of a speech community and/or a mother tongue for some of its speakers. Pidgincreoles are not creoles [as strictly defined, DDR], because they are not the language of an ethnic or political group or the mother tongue for the whole community. (Bakker 2008:131)*
- It’s awfully clear that from its earliest identifiable appearances on the historical scene, Chinuk Wawa started out being strictly a pidgin, so the first sentence makes sense for us.
- The second sentence is relevant for Central CJ in that, although it was the language of a new Métis community centered on Forts Astoria and Vancouver, it was only for very few people that the Jargon could have been the only language they knew.
A similar observation has been made of the Southern dialect of CJ, at Grand Ronde Indian Reservation, Oregon:
There, CJ was the language of a new blended Indigenous community’s identity, although only rarely a person’s sole language (Zenk 1988) —
— with the difference that no pidgin variety has been noted in extensive currency there.
So the Southern dialect is more properly described as a creole language.
I think it existed in a similar environment to those of the Caribbean French- and English-based creoles: always interacting with one or more of its “lexifier” languages…
Further remarks of Peter Bakker’s on pidgincreoles are also relevant to Chinuk Wawa’s array of dialects (my emphases here):
- “Structural expansion usually takes place as a consequence of both types of social extension” just noted [main language of community + mother tongue for some — DDR]
(Bakker 2008:137) - “Pidgincreoles may have a few native speakers, for example the children of parents who shared no language but the pidgin”
(Bakker 2008:139) - “A pidgin formerly used only in interethnic contacts may slowly gain in use in a community and become the default language to be used outside or even inside the immediate family.”
(Bakker 2008:139.)
Each point cited above has less to do with the Northern Dialect, though.
Due to its history in regions like Western Washington and British Columbia, the Northern variety was always a pidgin.
This is despite both the Northern and Southern dialects having the pidgincreole Central dialect as their ancestor!
Yes, any number of individuals grew up understanding it, from Settler kids like Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett to Indigenous folks like Arthur Urquhart to most of the community of Qualicum on Vancouver Island.
But Chinook never became the language of community identity and cohesion in the North.
Reference:
*Bakker, Peter. 2008. Pidgins versus creoles and pidgincreoles. Pages 130-157 in Kouwenberg, Sylvia and John Victor Singler (eds.), Handbook of pidgin and creole studies. Chichester, UK: Blackwell.
