The 1st & 2nd CJ compound nouns ever documented?
There were compounds in “Nootka Jargon”; we find them at least as far back as <Tais frijoles> from José Mariano Mociño / Moziño in 1792, literally ‘chief beans’.
But that’s not Chinook Jargon. We care about Chinook Jargon here.
Image credit: Etsy
Here’s a little section from a thing that I’m writing about Chinook Jargon:
Robert Stuart’s avowedly scant and very much conflicting understanding, from 1812 in Lower Chinookan country:
The Religion or rather enthusiastic superstition of these people, I had not sufficient opportunity or knowledge of their language to investigate fully, and notwithstanding my making the strictest enquiries, all I could collect was, that they represent the supreme being as an immense Bird, inhabiting the Sun, (called by them Uth-lath-Gla-gla, being a a benevolent spirit, and omnipotent. – to him they attribute the creation, and suppose him capable of assuming any shape or appearance at pleasure, but upon extraordinary occurrences, he is believed to take the likeness aforesaid, occasionally ranging through the aerial regions, and in his wrath, hurling down Thunder & lightning upon us guilty mortals; to him they offer annual sacrifices of their first Salmon, Venison, &c &c (Stuart 1995:8)
Stuart’s “Uth-lath-Gla-gla” — apparently the Thunderbird — is identifiable as two nouns of early Chinook Jargon, cf. <outlah> ‘sun’ in Franchère’s vocabulary below and kə́ləkələ ‘bird’ (CTGR 2012:108) which has often been pronounced k(ə)lák(ə)la (e.g. Brager et al. 2024:212). They comprise a grammatically-formed compound noun according to the known syntax of CJ at all stages, and are perhaps the second such ever documented, the first having been Lewis & Clark’s <ti-â, co-mo-shack> ‘chief beads’ in a previous section. (This is also the first known documentation of the CJ word for ‘bird’.)
Lewis and Clark’s party documented ‘chief beads’ on November 22, 1805.
All of the above is among the Lower Chinookan people, to whose territory Chinook Jargon was confined at the time, as far as I can find explicit evidence.
Bonus fact:
Longtime readers will recall, and cheechakoes may be delighted to know, that Thunderbird speaks Chinuk Wawa.
𛰅𛱁𛰃𛱂 𛰙𛱁𛱆𛰅𛱁 𛰃𛱄𛰙𛰃𛱄𛰙? qʰáta mayka tə́mtəm?
kata maika tumtum? Qu’en penses-tu?
What do you think?
And can you say it in Chinuk Wawa?
Hey! Teach Yourself northern-dialect Chinook Jargon!
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Contact me for the Zoom link.
