Author Archive

Traces of Chinook Jargon in Achumawi?

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The farthest southeast that I’ve found accounts of people speaking Chinuk Wawa is in Modoc-Klamath country of far south-central Oregon, which abuts Achumawi territory, in the northeastern corner of California.

OR, BC: Reinhart’s “The Golden Frontier…1851-1869”

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My thanks go to Gaye Schafer for sharing this book of her ancestor’s frontier-era memories of Oregon, and other Pacific NW areas.

Are ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ ever Adjectives in Chinook Jargon?

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Are ‘fast’ & ‘slow’ ever Adjectives in Chinuk Wawa? Nope.

Back from vacation. 2nd reminder: Chinook Jargon Gathering @ Ft Langley BC, Sept 12-13!

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Naika tloosh tilihum (my good friends),

Another Salish word, and more humor, in Northern Chinook Jargon

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The Secwépemc word suptsín, ‘beard’, shows up in the Chinook Jargon newspaper!

Russians speaking Chinuk Wawa in Alaska

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One of the persistent urban legends about Chinook Jargon has been that there are Russian words in it. Uh-uh.

1878, OR: How does “Chenook jargon” connect with Thomas Jefferson?

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The American Naturalist of December 1878, page 825, makes the following novel connection.

1928: Edward Harper Thomas on CJ dictionaries

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I’m not the biggest fan of his Chinook Jargon dictionary, although it was the first one that I ever got hold of…

1902, BC: Chinese Pidgin English + Chinook Jargon, again

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Thanks to Alex Code, appropriately enough, for this item as well.

1860: The Abridgement — Chenook jargon — cussin’ — and back-translation

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I don’t know why a title “The Abridgement” comes up online for this 750-page item; it’s one of those US government compendiums of reports from the various “Indian agents” and land surveyors.