1913, WA: El Comancho’s new book
There had been a major wave of interest in preserving Chinook Jargon just preceding the publication of this article in Washington state.
Walter Shelley Phillips, “El Comancho”, put out a guide to help the curious.
MAKES IT EASY
TO SPEAK CHINOOKAuthority on the Jargon Is-
sues Book Helpful to
Beginners.IT HAS NEW FEATURES
W. S. Phillips Has Produced a Work
More Complete Than Any
Other Ever Issued.“The Chinook Book” is the title of a
new publication from the presses of
R. L. Davis Printing Company, Arcade
way. Seattle. The author is “El Co-
mancho” (W. S. Phillips), the well-
known Seattle writer.The book is just what its title im-
plies, a complete and exhaustive treat-
ment in the Chinook jargon. Nothing
like it has ever been published. All
publications dealing with Chinook here-
tofore have been in more or less dic-
tionary form. These were necessarily
incomplete, because Chinook is a won-
derfullly [SIC] flexible infant language and
no dictionary can possibly give the
many meanings that are given by the
speaker to Chinook words.Talked Chinook Thirty Years.
Mr. Phillips has taken the Chinook
jargon, word by word, and analyzed it
thoroughly. He has talked Chinook for
thirty years and knows the terms in
a comprehensive way, therefore he has
been able to give the various shaded
meanings of every word in Chinook.
The pronunciation is handled by giv-
ing example English words having the
same vowel sounds as the Chinook
words have, so that the proper pro-
nunciation of the Chinook word is made
perfectly clear without the use of Eng-
lish sound symbols.This method makes the pronuncia-
tion of the Chinook words very easy
and accurate and it fixes the sounds
in phonetic spelling as no other work
on Chinook has done. In fact, the book
is so complete and so clearly explained
that any one can learn to speak Chi-
nook, and speak it properly, if he will
take the trouble to study “The Chinook
Book.”Another feature is the segregation of
words into lists under the following
heads: “Common Words in the Chinook
Jargon With Their Full and Shaded
Meanings,” “Counting in Chinook,”
“List of Fewest Words Needed to Carry
on Ordinary Conversation in Chinook,”
“Words in Common Use in Associated
Groups,” “Words of Like Sound but
Different Meaning,” “Examples of Or-
dinary Conversation in Chinook With
English Translation.”Under this last head the following
Chinook conversations are given with
verbatim translation: “Trade conver-
sation.” “work conversation,” “infor-
mational conversation,” chance conver-
sation,’ “social conversation.’ These
conversation examples show how Chi-
nook is put together in actual speak-
ing, and under each Chinook word is
given the English word having the
same meaning, and then the idea in
English is summarized below.Great Help to Beginner.
All of this is a great help to the be-
ginner in speaking Chinook. as it shows
the construction of the Chinook jargon
and brings out its wonderful flexible
quality.The book is dedicated to the Seattle
Press Club, the Tilikums of Elttaes
and to all the Hyas Ahncuttie Tilikums
of the Pacific coast who have used
this queer speech in pioneer work for
the American people.Mr. Phillips has turned out the most
complete work on Chinook in exist-
ence, and it should be made the stand-
ard work on Chinook, as it will prob-
ably never be handled in so complete
a way agaln, because the old-time Chi-
nook speakers are fast dying, and those
who are left lack the training neces-
sary to handle a work of this kind.
It will be placed on sale in book
stores or can be had direct from the
publishers. Those interested in Chi-
nook will find it well worth while.
— from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer of March 23, 1913, page 16, column 2 (illustration is in column 3)
