Gibbs 1863 on dialects in Chinuk Wawa

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In my opinion, the best of the English-speaker-oriented Chinook Jargon guides in the frontier era may well have been George Gibbs’s “A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, or Trade Language of Oregon“.

It was published in Washington, DC by no less reliable an entity than the Smithsonian Institution, in 1863.

The Elder Sister (not a word) (image credit: Wikipedia)

I personally feel better about being “an American” due to those guys existing; people with modern political complaints about them can go jump deep in a reflecting pool.

A fun note, before I go on, is that the above link takes you to a copy personally signed by author Gibbs!

The point of this here article, however, is to glorify the subdialect words within this, may I say, Wa(r)shington monument of the oldest, Central, Dialect of Chinuk Wawa.

Locals only, dude. Even if Gibbs doesn’t specify where a word is limited to, if he calls it not generally known, it makes the list below.

An overall comment on Gibbs’s vocabulary, which we can call Fort Vancouver-centric, is that it includes lots of Lower Chinookan-sourced words that, even as he wrote, were rapidly on their way out of use — even in the nearby, very heavily Chinookan-influenced, newly creolized Southern Dialect at Grand Ronde Indian Reservation — and especially in the re-pidginizing Northern Dialect of western Washington and British Columbia.

I’m amazed, in this connection, that he doesn’t call a single French-sourced word (except maybe ‘clams’ below) local, although we now know the huge majority of them quickly disappeared from the Northern Dialect due to the lack of Métis/Canadian CJ speakers in BC.

Non-Chinook Jargon words:

Gibbs does point out a number of words reputed to be Jargon, but in his expert view, not used in this language. They’re all Lower Chinookan unless I show you otherwise:

  1. [lik-pu′-hu / lik′-po] ‘an elder sister’ is “not used in Jargon”.]
  2. [nau′-its ‘off shore; on the stream’ is “not properly a Jargon word”.] It’s from Lower Chehalis Salish, my research indicates.
  3. [o′-la-pits-ki ‘fire’ is “not properly a Jargon word”.]
  4. [óte-lagh ‘the sun’ is “not properly a Jargon word”.]
  5. [sis′-ki-you ‘a bob-tailed horse’ seems ridiculous to Gibbs to claim as Chinook Jargon, and I’ve shown it to be from Métis/French-Canadians’ use of Plains Cree]
  6. [wa′-ki ‘to-morrow’ is “not Jargon”.]
  7. [tshi′-ke ‘directly; soon’ is “not Jargon”.]

He also helpfully indicates 2 old-fashioned words as being only previously used, and both of these are Lower Chinookan as well:

  1. na-áh ‘a mother’ is “peculiar to the Columbia, and now in fact obsolete”.
  2. suk-wal′-al ‘a gun or musket’ is “no longer used in Jargon”.

Let’s have a peek at the rest of the words that George reports to have been only in limited use in the world of Chinooking — with my added interpretation, as one of the world’s experts on this language.

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Okay, okay, now those words. They fall into 3 location categories:

I. Puget Sound i.e. the Salish Sea, particularly with Lushootseed influence, just as I’ve often shown of Seattle-area Chinook Jargon, therefore I consider this early Northern Dialect (9 words):

  1. (For an-áh ‘an exclamation denoting pain, displeasure, or depreciation’,) the Puget Sound version is ad-de-dáh, which sounds totally Lushootseed Salish-ish.
  2. chet-woot ‘a black bear’ is “used only on Puget Sound”, also Lushootseed (Gibbs notes a Nisqually origin).
  3. cho′-tub ‘a flea’ is “used only on Puget Sound”, and again sounds Lushootseed. Do you realize, incidentally, that the mathematical “prime” symbol <′> is a stress mark (not a glottal stop) in the old documents?
  4. kwit′-shad-ie ‘the hare or rabbit’ is “confined to Puget Sound”. Lushootseed.
  5. luk′-ut-chee / lá-kwit-chee ‘clams’ is “used chiefly on Puget Sound”. Surprising, because this is often thought to be of Métis/Canadian French origin — so perhaps this indicates in particular a Fort Nisqually usage.
  6. máh-lie ‘to forget’ is “of local use on Puget Sound”.
  7. the variant pish-pish of puss′-puss ‘a cat’ is used “on Puget Sound”.
  8. to′-luks ‘the mussel’ is “used on Puget Sound only”.
  9. the pronunciation weehut is “on Puget Sound” [see the pronunciation hwéhkut is “about Vancouver, on the Columbia” below]. (Normative for Gibbs is way′-hut.)

II. Far lower Columbia River (traditional “Chinook” territory), the oldest of the subdialects of the oldest (Central) dialect (30 words):

  1. chák-chak ‘the bald eagle’ — “of only local use on the lower Columbia’. Lower Chinookan source.
  2. chuk-kin ‘to kick’ is “of local use only”. Lower Chehalis Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  3. eh-káh-nam ‘a tale or story’ is “used only on the Columbia river”; Lower Chinookan source.
  4. hó-ku-melh ‘to gather; to glean, as grain’ is “of local use”. Lower Chehalis Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  5. kal-ak-a-láh-ma ‘a goose’ is “used on the lower Columbia river”. Lower Chinookan source.
  6. ka-wák ‘to fly’ is “not in general use”. Lower Chehalis Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  7. keh′-loke ‘a swan’ is “of local use only”. Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  8. kéh-wa ‘because’ is “not in common use”. Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  9. kes′-chi / kéh-tsie ‘notwithstanding; although’ is “not in common use”. Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  10. ki′-wa ‘crooked’ is “of only local use”. Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.???????
  11. koo-sah / kó-sah ‘the sky’ is “only used on the Columbia”. Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  12. kush′-is ‘stockings’ is “not in general use”. Lower Chehalis Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  13. kwéh-kweh ‘a mallard duck’ is “used chiefly at the mouth of the Columbia”. Lower Chinookan source.
  14. kwék-wi-ens ‘a pin’ is “of limited use”. Lower Chehalis Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  15. kwetlh ‘proud’ is “not in general use”. Lower Chehalis Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.???????
  16. kwish / kweesh ‘[interjection] refusing any thing contemptuously’ is “used on the lower Columbia”. Also evidently Lower Chehalis Salish/Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  17. kwun′-nun ‘a count; numbers’ is “of merely local use”. SW Washington Salish source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  18. o′-na ‘the razor fish or solen; clams’ is “used only at the mouth of the Columbia”, as I reckon they don’t occur anywhere but on sandy open-ocean shores! Lower Chinookan source.
  19. pchih / pit-chih ‘thin in dimension, as of a board’ is “not in common use”. UNCLEAR ETYMOLOGY– perhaps a Lower Chinookan source related to Kathlamet -p̓íxʷət ‘thin’.
  20. skwak′-wal ‘a lamprey eel’ is “of local use only”. Lower Chehalis Salish, so apparently lower Columbia.???????????
  21. smet′-ocks ‘the large clam (Lutraria)’ is “used only at the mouth of the Columbia River”, again because it (the geoduck) is limited to saltwater sand beaches. Lower Chehalis Salish, so apparently lower Columbia.
  22. táh-nim ‘to measure’ is “of only local use, and not strictly Jargon”. That last comment tends to come up with Lower Chehalis Salish words, which people apparently freely mixed with CJ, so apparently lower Columbia.
  23. téh-teh ‘to trot, as a horse’ is “of local use only”. Lower Chinookan, so apparently lower Columbia?
  24. til′-i-kum-má-ma ‘a father’ is “not in use in Jargon”. I’ve shown it to be Lower Chinookan “my/our [exclusive] father”, so apparently lower Columbia.
  25. tshis ‘cold’ is “not in common use”. Lower Chinookan source, so apparently lower Columbia.
  26. tsish ‘[onomatopoeia] sound of a grindstone’, “of local use”. Lower Chinookan, so apparently lower Columbia?
  27. tsóle-pat ‘a shot-pouch’ is “of local use only”. Lower Chehalis Salish, so apparently lower Columbia.
  28. whim ‘to fell’ is “of local use only”. He calls it Wasco Chinookan; I’ve shown it to be SW Washington Salish.
  29. win′-a-pie ‘by-and-bye; presently; wait’ is “of local use”. This is from Nuuchanulth (“Nootka Jargon” really), a fact that instantly suggests a very early vintage at the extreme lower Columbia only.
  30. yah′-hul ‘a name’ is “not in general use”.

III. The Métis community centred on Fort Vancouver, from the Willamette Valley to Fort Langley. This is quite a grab bag from various ethnic sources, as we might more or less expect from a “mixed” population (4 words):

  1. bur-dash ‘an hermaphrodite’ is “of very limited use” (makes me suspect there weren’t tons of 2-Spirit people known?). It’s from Métis/Canadian French.
  2. tso′-lo ‘to wander in the dark; to lose one’s way’ is “used in the Willamette valley”. K’alapuyan source.
  3. si′-pah ‘straight, like a ramrod’ is “of only local use” (Gibbs says Wasco, I’ve found it to be Clackamas, therefore it’s perhaps of the Fort Vancouver area)
  4. the pronunciation hwéhkut is “about Vancouver, on the Columbia” [see the pronunciation weehut “on Puget Sound” above]. (Normative for Gibbs is way′-hut.) Lower Chinookan etymology.

Evaluation: we’re so lucky someone as observant as George Gibbs was on the scene when he was.

  • He clearly shows us that the Lower Chinookan component in Chinuk Wawa steadily weakened. (The words he felt weren’t Jargon were by all indications extremely early Jargon, already disappearing.) In this connection, remember the known demographic decline of Lower Chinookan people and language, and its replacement with Lower Chehalis, which survived longer.
  • Gibbs is also a fine source of information on the fact that “Chinook” meant a blend of Lower Chinookan with Lower Chehalis Salish, from the earliest documented times.
  • Only he pointed out the branching-off of the Northern Dialect, while it was happening.
  • His implicit recognition of Métis CJ speech is of great interest. (It can be taken as one of the parents of the Grand Ronde Reservation re-creolized Southern Dialect.)

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?

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