John Touin/Tuan/Twan, a BC Métis literate in Chinook Jargon
Historians Jean Barman and Mike Evans published an excellent article, “Reflections on Being and Becoming Métis in British Columbia” (The British Columbian Quarterly, 2009).
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X’unei’s wonderful Lingít dictionary
X‘unei Lance Twitchell edited another really fine dictionary of the Lingít language that you can freely access from your computer…
Métis vowels & Chinuk Wawa: denasalization
I have not heard much spoken Métis French, but modern written sources give good information…
1902: A heehee time
A different BC Chinook Jargon expression for a part or a “potlatch”….
Métis “dret”, Métis “très” at Grand Ronde
Why did drét become the only word for ‘very’, but only in the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation community of Oregon?
1786-1787: Portlock and Dixon on the northern PNW coast
Seems to me this early set of contacts with Tlingits and their northern neighbors indicates virtually no trade language existed on the northern Pacific Northwest coast in the late 1780s.
1906: For presentation to Teddy Roosevelt
In a previous post, I reported that US President Teddy Roosevelt spoke Chinook.
1793-1825: Why Métis speech dominated the PNW Interior before Chinook Jargon did
Here’s an easy way to see why it was that Métis speech was the “lingua franca” of the Interior Pacific Northwest, until Chinook Jargon took over.
kʰə́ltəs kʰámuksh in SW WA Salish?
We know that ‘dog’ is an insult in many Pacific NW Indigenous languages…
1791-1792: Joseph Ingraham on the PNW coast…
Boston trader Joseph Ingraham (1762-1800) spent a couple of seasons in Haida Gwaii and in Nuuchahnulth country, at a time when numerous Euro-American vessels had already become a common sight…