Monthly Archive: September, 2026

What do other people call you behind your back? Exonyms in Chinuk Wawa

by

Lately I’ve been doing a good deal of research deep into the Chinookan languages, but it’s leading me right back out to the names of foreign tribes!

Hold on tight! Here’s an earlier Lower Chinookan etymology for t’úʔan

by

ɬúsh-nánich (tloosh-nanich)! 

MYSTERY: Lionnet’s 1853 Chinuk Wawa vocabulary, with translations in an unknown Indigenous language

by

Thanks to a certain archive, I’ve stumbled onto this mystery and wonder if we can crowdsource an answer to it…

Could this be an overlooked Métis/Canadian French word in Chinook Jargon?

by

Additions to our knowledge of Métis/Canadian French input to Chinuk Wawa keep showing up.

Why do we need a Chinook-Peipa (shorthand) font?

by

Why do we need a font for Chinook-Peipa that plays well with word processing software? 

2 reasons why that atrocious Chinook housing name might have been in good faith

by

The other day, I reported on an (unfortunately) atrocious try at a Chinook Jargon name for a Vancouver, BC housing development.

Another PNW Indigenous “Marseillaise”, and it’s a doozy

by

For real??

TRIUMPH OF THE IGNOROIDS!

by

The image you’re seeing is from British Columbia, 100% fact-checked! Okok pikcha masaika nanich yakwaa, dleit kopa Bisi-illahi okok, pi dleit naika kumtuks poos nawitka!

Reader poll: is “chum” salmon inferior?

by

Based on conversations I’ve had with actual Pacific Northwesterners, this Chinook Jargon-related question suggests itself:

Flipping a 180°: máɬx̣wəli ‘from fire’

by

Among the words from the Lower Chinookan language that we know in Chinuk Wawa is the adverb máɬx̣wəli ‘away; over away; placed elsewhere; on the other side; inland; over in’. That’s the CW… Continue reading