1897: Henrik Cavling, “Fra Amerika”

An inaccurate but really interesting Danish view of the Pacific Northwest, just post-frontier:

Danske skovhuggere (Danish lumberjacks)

In the book “Fra Amerika” by Henrik Cavling (Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1897), you can find this:

Staten Washington, der nu er i voldsom Opblomstring, – de
sidste 20 Aar er Indbyggerantallet fordoblet 12 Gange – blev Stat
i Aaret 1889 og havde den Gang 350,000 Indbyggere. Mellem disse
fandtes 11,000 Svenske, 9000 Norske og 4000 Danske. Der ud-
gives to skandinaviske Blade, et i Byen Scattle, der har 44,000
Indbyggere, og et i Byen Tacoma, der har 40,000. Mange Skan-
dinaver bor i Statens tredie største By, Spokane Falls, der har
gjort det fænomenale Kunststykke at fordoble sin Handel, sin Vel-
stand og sit Indbyggerantal paa — ét Aar! De nordligere Egne af
Washington er dog meget øde. Endnu træffer man her de saa-
kaldte Chinookers, Pelsdyrjægere og Squaw-Mænd, der taler deres
eget Sprog, den saakaldte Chinook-Jargon. Staten, der er opkaldt
efter Landets Fader, Georg Washington, har i sit Vaaben Ordet
Alki, der er et Chinook Ord og betyder „efterhaanden“. 

A Google Translate version of that in English:

The State of Washington, which is currently experiencing a tremendous boom—its population has doubled twelve times over the last 20 years—became a state in 1889, at which time it had 350,000 inhabitants. Among these were 11,000 Swedes, 9,000 Norwegians, and 4,000 Danes. Two Scandinavian newspapers are published there: one in the city of Seattle, which has 44,000 inhabitants, and one in the city of Tacoma, which has 40,000. Many Scandinavians reside in the state’s third-largest city, Spokane Falls, which has achieved the phenomenal feat of doubling its commerce, its prosperity, and its population in—a single year! The northern regions of Washington, however, are very sparsely populated. Here, one still encounters the so-called “Chinooks”—fur trappers and men living with Native American women—who speak their own language, known as Chinook Jargon. The state, named after the Father of the Nation, George Washington, features the word *Alki* in its coat of arms; this is a Chinook word meaning “eventually” or “by and by.”

— p. 398

I notice that Google sanitizes the offensive term “squaw men” with a wordy workaround.

Now I’ve learned my very first translation from Chinuk Wawa into Danish: áɬqi / atlki = efterhaanden.

One step at a time, I reckon!

Bonus fact:

An unsettling tie-in with another creole language emerges in the Wikipedia article about the author:

In 2017 it was revealed that Cavling bought a 10-year-old boy from Danish West Indies, who distributed his newspapers.

This would have been before the 1917 sale of that part of the Virgin Islands to the U.S.A., thus at a time when the Dutch-based creole Negerhollands was still spoken by plenty of African descendants there.

HIRE A LINGUIST!
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!

And join free Zoom sessions…

Contact me for the Zoom link.