Author Archive

Who is going to record these precious old Chinook Jargon tunes? (Part 1 of 3)

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I’m not getting any younger, these songs won’t record themselves, and clichés won’t get the job done either!

Talking about Chinook Jargon in Sliammon

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Here’s a sentence in Sliammon (a pretty far northern Coast Salish language of what’s now British Columbia):

“A Legacy from Sam Morris”

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About 3 years ago I introduced you to a Chinook Jargon song recorded in 1911 by Nez Perce tribal members.

Expanding our minds about “snas” (‘rain’)!

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Thanks to a conversation the other day with Doctors Henry Kammler and ƛukša Adam Werle, we have this thought.

How is “moodih” a Chinook Jargon loan into Tl’azt’en-ne Bughuni?

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I’m very curious: how is moodih a Chinook Jargon loan into Dakelh?

I think músmus and tutúsh both came from Plains Cree/Ojibwe

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On the topic of stuff I’ve thought for many years but evidently haven’t said in so many words here:

Did k’áynuɬ reference ‘getting high’ in K’alapuyan?

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I credit CWDP (2012:121).

BC: “Tyhee Conomody, Atkiso, and Kwikwetlem First Nation” (land disputes in Chinook, etc)

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In British Columbia History magazine 52:2 (Summer 2019), pages 26-31, we get some insight into the role of Chinook Jargon in the early frontier era of BC.

Shameful news about másháchi ‘bad, harmful, terrible, mean’

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Alexander Ross was quite good with languages.

Clackamas ‘(railroad) train’ is no co-inky-dink!

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“Calque” is the word to know… In “Clackamas Chinook Texts”, page 562, wátuɬ čúkčan (‘fire wagon’) is the Clackamas-language term for a ‘railroad train’. Image credit: Progressive Rail This is clearly borrowed from Chinuk Wawa’s páya-t’síkt’sik!… Continue reading →